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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26712232">The Unlikely Best Friends of Hogwarts</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Andrrrea/pseuds/Andrrrea'>Andrrrea</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Lunar Chronicles - Marissa Meyer</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 07:08:25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>26,871</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26712232</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Andrrrea/pseuds/Andrrrea</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>HP AU. Cress and Thorne are best friends and they go to Hogwarts, but suddenly Cress starts to develop feelings for Thorne. What should Cress do? Admit her feelings and possibly ruin their friendship or keep quiet and never know if he feels the same way? ALL THE OTHER SHIPS ARE IN THE BACKGROUND.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Crescent Moon "Cress" Darnel/Carswell Thorne, Kai/Linh Cinder, Scarlet Benoit/Winter Hayle-Blackburn, Scarlet Benoit/Wolf | Ze'ev Kesley</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. The Train</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Cresswell HP AU fic</p><p>Cress still couldn't believe that she was a witch. That she had magical abilities. Although Cress had always known that she wasn't completely normal, she would have never thought that she was a witch! She could still not comprehend the fact that she was going to go to a wizarding school! <br/>It was called Hogwarts, and even though Cress still couldn't comprehend it, there she was at King's Cross. She was looking for platform 9 ¾ all by herself. There she was, standing between platform 9 and 10. However there was no platform 9 ¾, it simply did not exist! <br/>Standing there with her cat -a cat as white as snow, she had decided to call it Snowball- she felt really stupid. Suddenly she felt a tap on her shoulder, she jumped at the touch of the stranger. "Are you going to Hogwarts?" the stranger -a boy around her age- asked her and discreetly jerked his head at her baggage and then at the brick wall in front of them. <br/>"Yes," she told him and nodded eagerly. <br/>"I saw you standing here and you looked very confused. I'll help you through," he pointed at the brick wall when he said through, what did he mean with through? <br/>"Thank you, but I don't understand. Help me through where?" she asked him, and looked at him with a confused look. <br/>"Through the wall, you silly girl!" he giggled as if it was perfectly normal to go through walls. <br/>"I'll show you," he started walking backwards with his baggage cart, almost like he was going to run into the wall.<br/>"Gather up speed, and then run through," the boy said loudly, but everyone around them were too busy to notice the boy running towards the brick wall. She closed her eyes and waited for the sound of his baggage cart crashing into the wall, but it never came. Cress opened her eyes in astonishment, the boy was gone. Had he really gone through the wall? Cress decided there was only one way to find out, worst case scenario was that she got a couple of weird looks and some bruises. She started walking backwards, and then she began running, gathering up speed exactly as the boy had done. She closed her eyes and waited for the impact of the crash. She waited, but it didn't come. Cress quickly opened her eyes, in front of her was the boy. He reached his hand out towards her, she realized after an awkward moment that he wanted to introduce himself, she shook his hand. <br/>"Thorne," he said before continuing. "Carswell Thorne, but please call me Thorne". He held onto her hand, she blushed when she understood that he was expecting her to introduce herself. <br/>"I'm Crescent Moon Darnel, but people call me Cress," Cress told Thorne. <br/>"We should probably go now," he said and pointed at the train. <br/>"Yeah," she agreed. They boarded the Hogwarts express together. On their way to Hogwarts, she told him about her childhood and her abusive adoptive mother. He told her all about the wizarding world and about his family. His family was purebloods apparently his family didn't particularly like people like her -muggleborns-, but Thorne said he didn't really care about that stuff. He told her about all the different houses, he also told her that it was his first year at Hogwarts too. They hoped that they would get sorted into the same house.</p><p>Author's note: Hello! This fanfiction is a Harry Potter alternate universe fanfiction so the characters of The Lunar Chronicles are attending Hogwarts, there will be no Harry Potter characters in this fanfic. Also I started this fic 4 years ago over on fanfiction.net under the same name, but since I'm nearing the end I figured it was time to post it here too. I hope you enjoy it(keep in my the first few chapters are a bit old, so my writing is the best, like I should have shown that Sybil was abusive not flat out say it lol)</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. The Sortinghat</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>All information about the Hufflepuff common room is from the HP wiki.. I'm sorry if anything in general in this fic is wrong when it comes to the Harry Potter universe.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Cress stepped out off the boat and onto land. Not wanting to be alone, she craned her neck and started looking for Thorne. Eventually she found him in the crowd. <br/>"How was the boat ride?" Cress asked eagerly. <br/>"Did you think it was fun too?" she asked. <br/>"It was okay," Thorne shrugged. <br/>"Oh, I thought it was very fun," she said, trying to calm her excitement. They started talking about which houses they would get sorted into as they made their way towards the castle. Cress still could not believe that she was a witch, and that she was going to Hogwarts. She was so excited! Thorne didn't seem as excited as Cress, however that was probably because he had known he was a wizard his whole life. <br/>When they reached the castle they were led into the great hall. In the great hall there was a raggedy hat on top of a chair. After everyone had gathered, the doors were closed. They started calling out names. First year after first year went up and got sorted into their houses, the hat seemed to use more time on some than others. <br/>"Crescent Moon Darnel!" the principal called out. Cress sat down on the chair, and the hat slipped over her eyes when it was placed on her head. <br/>"You have a lot of potential as a Ravenclaw, you have a big brain," the hat mumbled in her ear. <br/>"But you could also be a Hufflepuff," the hat said. The sorting hat considered between the two houses for a while and then it shouted. "HUFFLEPUFF!" the hat was removed from her head. All the Hufflepuffs were cheering when Cress made her way towards them, she glanced at Thorne on her way. Thorne looked a bit upset, she didn't understand why. She joined the hufflepuffs and watched as more people got sorted into their houses, but Cress wasn't really paying attention to what was happening. <br/>"Carswell Thorne!" the principal called out, this caught her attention. She crossed her fingers. "Please say hufflepuff, please say hufflepuff," Cress whispered to herself. Although her fingers were crossed it didn't help. <br/>"SLYTHERIN!" the hat shouted. Thorne looked satisfied, but when he saw Cress his satisfaction faltered. He gave her a shrug and went to join the Slytherins. When everyone had been sorted into their houses, an older student -a prefect, Cress had learned- led them to the entrance to the common room. It was located in a nook on the right hand side of the kitchen corridor, concealed behind a stack of barrels. The prefect started tapping the barrels and started explaining how it all worked. <br/>"One must tap the barrel two from the bottom, middle of the second row, in the rhythm of 'Helga Hufflepuff', which will make the lid swing open," the lid swung open. It exposed a passageway. <br/>"If the wrong lid is tapped or the wrong rhythm is used, the intruder will be doused in vinegar and barred access," he explained. <br/>"Come on," he made a gesture with his hand for them to follow him, and then they crawled through one by one. The room Cress found herself standing in was round and it was earthy. It had a low ceiling and circular windows, she could see grass and dandelions peeking up outside the window. There were plants all over the place, some of them on the windowsills and some hanging from the ceiling. In addition to the plants all over the place, there were also overstuffed chairs and couches in yellow and black. Cress went to her assigned dormitory. Although she didn't mind sharing a room, it did make her very anxious. Which caused her to start playing with her long blonde hair. <br/>"Hi! I'm Iko!" her roommate announced very energetically. <br/>"I am Winter," her other roommate said. <br/>"Crescent," said Cress. They looked at her confused. <br/>"I mean... My name is Crescent, nice to meet you. You can call me Cress though, please don't call me Crescent," she told them and attacked her hair, taking all her anxiety out on it. <br/>"Nice to meet you Cress," Iko smiled.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>If you haven't already noticed I've made all the characters the same age.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. The Gift</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The conversation that they had on the train led to Cress and Thorne becoming great friends, despite their houses. Cress loved being at Hogwarts with Thorne, however she didn't like the summer vacation. The reason she didn't like it was because she would have to go back to Sybil. In the summer she could only communicate with Thorne through letters. Cress was always really happy when she arrived at King's Cross, at the end of the summer to see Thorne already there, waiting for her. Every Christmas Thorne would stay at Hogwarts with Cress so she didn't have to be alone. None of her roommates stayed over the Christmas break, therefore she had the dormitory to herself. Since she had the dormitory to herself, Thorne would sneak in and they would open their presents together. When Thorne suggested it in their third year Cress had been very skeptical, but she had given in. Now that they were in their fifth year they were still doing it.</p><p>He stood leaning against the wall next to the barrels, the gift was probably hidden in his robes.</p><p>"Is it clear?" Thorne asked, stepping away from the barrels.</p><p>"Yes, well... At least right now. Hence why we need to hurry!" Cress answered. She thought it was weird that the house elves never said anything, but she was glad they didn't tell on them. Thorne stood behind Cress waiting for her to open the door.</p><p>"I'm not going to open it when your watching! Turn around," she exclaimed, maybe that was why the house elves didn't care? Because she never actually showed him how to get in. Rolling his eyes in disbelief he crossed his arms and turned around.</p><p>"You know I trust you, right?" Cress asked him as she started tapping the barrels.</p><p>"But if we ever got caught I would get in a lot of trouble for showing a Slytherin how to get into the Hufflepuff common room," Thorne said in an imitation of Cress.</p><p>"Exactly, and also that is not how I sound!" she told him with extra pressure on that, and also pointing at him when she said that, even though he couldn't see it.</p><p>"In addition to that very reason you just said, the house elves can confirm that I never showed you the combination to get in, if I ever do get in trouble for this," she continued. "Yeah, I get it. But I kind of wish you'd just show me, I know you don't want to get into trouble so I totally get it," he said, she could hear that he was smiling.</p><p>"You can turn around now," she said as the lid swung open.</p><p>"Although you should wait, so that I can check that no one is there. Wait until I come out again okay?" Cress asked.</p><p>"Okay," Thorne nodded. Cress then preceded to crawl through the passageway and into the common room. She looked around quickly, there was nobody there. She slowly let out her breath. She rushed out again, when she came out she motioned for Thorne to follow her.</p><p>"Come on quickly," she whispered. They hurried through the passageway.</p><p>"Come on! Go! Run into my room, you remember where it is right?" Cress said in panic. Thorne nodded and ran towards the girls dormitories. The moment he was out of sight, Cress relaxed.</p><p>"Who were you talking to?" asked Ze'ev.</p><p>"Uhmm.. No one, just myself," she answered. Ze'ev raised an eyebrow at her.</p><p>"I often talk to myself," Cress added.</p><p>"And also didn't you just leave?" he asked looking a bit confused. Cress didn't know what to answer to that, she was really bad at lying and she really needed to get better at it.</p><p>"Oh, I was just asking the house elves what they're making for dinner," she shrugged. She often talked to the house elves, she just felt so bad for them, so even though that would be strange behavior for others. It was normal for her and he didn't question it. Before he had the chance to ask her what they were making, she hurried to tell him that she had to go do some schoolwork.</p><p>"What took you so long?" Thorne asked as soon as she stepped into the room.</p><p>"Ze'ev came into the common room right after you left, he saw me leaving the first time. Therefore he wondered what I did, uhm I told him I asked the house elves what was for dinner," she answered.</p><p>"Okay," Thorne shrugged.</p><p>"I just got a bit worried," he added.</p><p>"So do you have my present?" Cress asked.</p><p>"Yes," he answered smirking, he lifted up a small box with a silver bow. It was around the size of her palm.</p><p>"Do you have mine?" Thorne asked.</p><p>"Yes, of course," Cress told him, and walked over to the dresser where the gift lay in one of the drawers. She opened the drawer and took out the neatly wrapped present. She sat down on the floor next to her bed and motioned for Thorne to sit down next to her. He crossed his legs and sat down.</p><p>"Here," Cress said, giving him his present. He gave Cress her present.</p><p>"Open your present first! I'm so excited to see your reaction!" she smiled. He laughed at her excitement, Cress elbowed him playfully in the side.</p><p>"Jerk!" she joked, and then she laughed too.</p><p>"Now open it!" Cress told him.</p><p>"Alright then, since you can barely contain your excitement!" Thorne said raising his hands. He started pulling the blue wrapping paper away, revealing the gift on the inside. A sweater with the name of his favorite quidditch team!</p><p>"Thank you Cress!" he said and smiled.</p><p>"I hoped you would like it," she smiled back.</p><p>"Now it's your turn," he said nodding his head at the small box. Cress ripped the paper off, it was a black box. She opened the box, and gasped. It was a delicate silver crescent moon, it had tiny sapphire blue gemstones, it was beautiful. The pendant was attached to a silver chain, everything glittered in the sunlight from the window.</p><p>"I'm speechless, it's so beautiful. Oh stars! It must have been very expensive! I can't take it Thorne, you have to return it. It's too expensive.. Don't get me wrong it's beautiful and all, but I can't take that much money from you!" Cress exclaimed.</p><p>"Cress I insist! I think you deserve something nice, and it's not like Sybil gives you anything nice," he practically begged. She considered it for a while, and instead of answering him she hugged him.</p><p>"Thank you so much Thorne!" she hugged him again.</p><p>"Yeah, yeah that's enough hugging now," he laughed. Cress knew he was just joking, so she stuck her tongue out at him and hugged him again.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Falling</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I just realized boys can't go into girls rooms and that it's the other way around... But it doesn't really make sense with the story the other way around. I don't think Cress would voluntarily go into the Slytherin dungeon. Sorry about the mistake, but I told you there would probably be some things from the Potter universe that were wrong.. And I just realized my first mistake. I'm not going to change it though, but I am aware of my mistake now..</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When Thorne gave Cress the beautiful necklace for Christmas she realized something. The moment his fingers brushed her skin when he was putting on the necklace, a tingling sensation went through her body and she felt a bit flustered. Thorne had asked her if everything was okay, and she told him everything was alright. However everything was not alright, because it was at that moment Cress realized she had feelings for Thorne, romantic feelings. After she had gotten him out of her room and the Hufflepuff common room without getting in any trouble, Cress was so very confused. How could she develop feelings for her best friend?! Cress told herself it probably was just nothing, and that it would be over in a couple of days. But oh was she wrong!</p><p>"Did you have a nice break Cress?" Iko asked excitedly.</p><p>"Yeah, it was fun," Cress told her, the cold metal from the necklace she had gotten from Thorne felt warm against her skin, and a warm blush spread across her face when she thought about him.</p><p>"Was your break any fun?" Cress asked Iko.</p><p>"It was alright, but Adri was being a bitch to me and Cinder as usual," Iko shrugged. Cinder was Iko's stepsister or something like that, she was a Gryffindor.</p><p>"I'm glad I don't have to go home to Sybil," Cress mumbled to no one in particular. Iko and Cress had become closer after opening up to each other about their horrible "mothers", they didn't often actually bring up Sybil and Adri, but sometimes they did. Cress felt a lot closer to Iko than she felt to Winter, Winter was a bit crazy. She did like Winter too though. "Is it just me or does it smell cologne in here?" Iko raised her eyebrow and took a deep inhale.</p><p>"What? Cologne? Why would it smell like cologne? I did hang out with Thorne a lot maybe it's just me you smell?" Cress shrugged and tried to smell the cologne, it did smell like cologne, but only faintly. She was also trying to hide her panic.</p><p>"Thorne? Really Cress? He's a Slytherin! You really need to stop hanging out with him Cress. He's a douche. Also did I mention he's a Slytherin? And which house is it you're in again? That's right Hufflepuff!" Iko exclaimed in distaste.</p><p>"He's my best friend, and he's not all bad. He can be nice too, and he is very generous..." Cress trailed off and her hand went up to her necklace.</p><p>"One day, and mark my words Crescent! He will hurt your feelings," Iko said, Iko used her full name just to annoy Cress.</p><p>"He would never do that," she said trying to defend Thorne.</p><p>"Fine Cress, but I'm warning you. You shouldn't hang out with him," Iko said, she walked out of the room and into the common room. Cress went over to her bed and sat down. Would Thorne ever hurt her feelings? No. No he wouldn't</p><p>"That was a close call, and she clearly does not think highly of me!" Thorne said as he crawled out from beneath the bed.</p><p>"I told you to get out of here before everyone got back! You just wouldn't listen, now the common room is probably crawling with people! Oh stars!? How are we going to get you out of here?" she asked him in panic, gesturing her hands wildly all around the place.</p><p>"Relax Cress, it'll be alright! Just relax, I'll stay here until everyone is asleep and then you can get me out of here," Thorne said and sat down on the bed next to her, he put his hands on her shoulders. She felt butterflies awakening in her stomach at his touch, go back to sleep! She told the butterflies, but they wouldn't listen.</p><p>"Where are you going to hide?" she asked, and started attacking her long hair.</p><p>"There," Thorne answered nonchalantly with a smirk as he pointed under her bed.</p><p>"I'm not hiding there all day though, I'm only hiding if someone is coming!" he told her in a serious way.</p><p>"Okay, but you do realize this is stressing me out and I'm kind of sort of panicking. You do realize that right?" she asked him looking down at her feet.</p><p>"Cress, you won't get into any trouble if we do get caught you know that. I'm the one that they'll blame because I'm a Slytherin," he paused before he continued. "There is no reason for you to be stressing. So just relax Cress," he took her hand in his hands and squeezed it, her hand was tingling from the warmth of his hands. He gave her a reassuring smile, she smiled back as relaxed as she could manage. She gathered a bit of courage and squeezed back.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. The Incident</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>They got away with it yet again, when every Hufflepuff was sleeping -Or at least they were in their beds and not in the common room- Cress helped Thorne to sneak out.</p><p>When Cress was walking down the hallway when she saw Thorne. He stood next to Jacin, Jacin was Thorne's only friend in Slytherin. Cress started walking past them.</p><p>"Hey Cress! Do you want to do homework in the library together later?" Thorne asked her. She felt butterflies in her stomach. Lately Cress had been having a lot of trouble with acting normal around him, so she mostly tried to avoid him. She stopped, and turned around. Thorne was leaning against the wall, and he had his signature smirk on his face. She felt a blush coming, she scolded herself for blushing so easily.</p><p>"Yeah, of course," she answered and managed to look him in the eyes for half a second before turning around and continue walking.</p><p>"See you then!" he shouted after her.</p><p>"Yeah!" she yelled back. She crushed the giddy smile that was spreading across her face, the smile that felt so wrong! He was her bestfriend! However she couldn't crush the smile or the crush she was having on him, she was spending her whole afternoon with Thorne! In addition to all the chaos these feelings were causing she was panicking, she was panicking because she was falling for Thorne and she was falling hard. Just as hard as when she had tried out for the quidditch team. Thorne had helped training her, so that she could join the Hufflepuff quidditch team. Cress didn't really like the idea, but she did it anyways. What was the worst that could happen? Well, although what happened wasn't really the worst thing that could have happened, it was really bad.</p><p>Trying out for the quidditch team had been Thorne's idea. Today was the day when Cress would try out for the Hufflepuff quidditch team. She had to admit that she wasn't really the best at controlling the broom, but she was alright. In addition to that she wasn't really that great at quidditch in general. Despite all of her excuses for not trying out, Thorne had told her it would be fun and had convinced her in the end. She wrapped her fingers around the broomstick and held on to it firmly she pushed her feet off the ground and flew up into the air. The warm wind blew through her hair, it felt amazing. Suddenly the wind grew stronger and she had trouble keeping control over her broomstick, and before she could even let out a scream she was plummeting towards the ground. She hit the ground with a loud thud. Cress felt an awful ache in the back of her head, she lifted her hand carefully up to the injury. It hurt when she touched it, she felt the wetness of blood. Oh stars, she was bleeding. She tried pushing herself into a sitting position, Cress moaned, she felt excruciating pain in her leg and lay down again carefully so she wouldn't hurt her head, and make that worse. She saw people rushing towards her to help including Thorne, who had been watching which wasn't exactly something her classmates had been happy about. She felt tears stinging in her eyes, because of the pain her leg injury was causing.</p><p>"Cress are you okay?!" Thorne asked her in a worried tone.</p><p>"Yeah, I'm fine," she gasped.</p><p>"Stars above! Cress your leg!". Cress looked at her leg, the sight that greeted her was not pleasant. There was a lot of blood and her bone jutted out of her leg. Cress couldn't handle the sight, her vision went black. She fainted.</p><p>After the incident that resulted in a minor head injury and a broken leg. Cress didn't make the team, and she hadn't flied on any brooms since then. Cress wasn't sure how much longer she could keep doing this, pretending that everything was completely normal when it obviously wasn't. She knew that she had to tell Thorne how she felt, eventually she would. For the time being Cress didn't have the courage to do so.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. The Crush</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Why aren't you a Ravenclaw?" Thorne asked her.</p><p>"Well the hat considered it, but I'm really just good at muggle technology," she told him.</p><p>"You are smart though Cress. I don't know anything about muggle technology.." he kept talking, however Cress wasn't really paying attention. Thorne said something else about muggle technology.</p><p>"Yeah," she mumbled and nodded. Her eyes went down to his lips as he kept talking. Then Cress realized how easy it would be to just take his face into her hands and kiss him, right then and there. Well it seemed easy, although it seemed easy it was the exact opposite of easy. As soon as the thought hit her and she started thinking through it properly an explosion of nerves hit her. Just taking his face in her hands and kissing him was physically impossible! It would also be super weird! She couldn't just kiss him without him being okay with it, and how could she know that if she just straight up kissed him!?</p><p>"Cress are you okay?" Thorne asked. "You seem a bit absent," he waved his hand in front of her face. Cress shook her head in an attempt to shake away her thoughts about kissing Thorne, she really needed to do something to make these thoughts stop.</p><p>"Uhmm.. Yeah I'm fine, I was just thinking," she answered him.</p><p>"Thinking about what?" he asked curiously.</p><p>"Oh.. Just assignments," she said, waving her hands a bit in the air as she talked. "Interesting," Thorne said and paused before continuing. "Because you were staring into the air and it seemed like your thoughts were in a completely different place. Besides we are currently working on assignments, so I feel like there is something you aren't telling me," Thorne accused her. Oh stars, what was she going to say? If she lied, he would know! She couldn't tell him that she had feelings for him, not now, not in the school library!</p><p>"There's this guy that I have a crush on," she shrugged and tried to stay as natural as possible, the acting natural part worked pretty well, but Cress had a little -huge really- when it came to staying in control her blush. Thorne looked a bit surprised, he raised an eyebrow at her in the effort of trying to hide it. Despite his best efforts in trying in hiding it, Cress saw that he was surprised.</p><p>"What? Why are you so surprised?" Cress asked a bit annoyed.</p><p>"I just didn't think about that possibility, so who is it?" he questioned her. What was she going to say now? Should she just tell him the name of a random guy in their year? Or should she tell him it was him, no she was definitely not going to tell him that it was him! That was not going to happen!</p><p>"Just this guy in Hufflepuff, I'm not going to tell you who it is though, because then you won't leave me alone about it," she answered, it was probably the worst excuse ever! In addition to that, what kind of awful person didn't tell their best friend who they were crushing on?! Well, probably the girl who has a crush on her best friend. What would he do if, no not if, but when she told him it was him she had feelings for?</p><p>"Well, it would be easier for me to help you if you told me who it is," he smirked at her, that smirk made butterflies come to life inside her stomach. And why did he have to be so attractive!? Cress tried to trample all the butterflies, but it was impossible there were too many!</p><p>"And how is it you're planning to help me?" Cress wondered.</p><p>"I've had a couple of girlfriends so I've got some experience with these kinds of things," He told her in a nonchalant way. The thought of just kissing him right then and there came into her mind once again. It was so easy, but at the same time it was impossible. If she could just kiss him that would explain everything and she wouldn't have to say a word. She tried lifting her hands towards his face, however the butterflies in her stomach had control over her hands and arms and they stayed put.</p><p>"I guess having had 5 girlfriends means you're quite the expert huh?" she said teasingly, giving up on her stupid attempts and thoughts on kissing him, as if she would ever be able to just straight up kiss him out of the blue! What was she thinking!?</p><p>"I guess so, anyways what I'm trying to say is that I can help you Cress. I can help you make him like you, or help you confess your feelings to him! It's fine if you don't want to tell me who it is, but you can tell me Cress," as an afterthought he added "It's not like you're in love with me," he laughed. She tried laughing with him.</p><p>"Of course not, that would be weird," she managed to press out. <br/>If only he knew, if only.</p>
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<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Crushed</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Cress made her way down to the Quidditch pitch. She knew that Thorne was just about to finish practice with his team. Two weeks had passed since Cress had told him she had a crush on someone, he hadn't stopped teasing her about it, as well as trying to make her tell him exactly who she had a crush on. Today was the day! She was going to tell him how she felt about him. Hopefully he would tell her he felt the same way. Being hopelessly in love with your best friend wasn't exactly easy, and the fact that he was a Slytherin and she was a Hufflepuff didn't make it any easier. A lot of people in both of their houses already disapproved of their friendship, imagine what those people would think if they ever started dating! People would criticize them even more. However Cress doubted that her feelings were requited. She had almost reached the entrance to the Quidditch pitch when she saw Thorne. Her heart dropped to the bottom of her stomach, and then it drilled itself through her stomach and dropped down onto the ground. Cress gaped in horror at the scene that greeted her, Thorne was making out with a girl from his team. The girl was pressed against the wooden frame of the stands, she had her legs wrapped around his hips, her arms were slung around his neck. Tears stung Cress's eyes. She wiped at her eyes ferociously, she would not cry, she could not cry! Thorne pressed the girl harder against the support beam, and she let out a low moan. That was it! It was too much for Cress, the tears spilled down her cheeks. She turned around and stumbled away in a hurry to put the biggest possible distance between herself and Thorne and the girl he was making out with. She probably trampled her heart in her hurry, because now her heart was crushed. In addition to all the sadness Cress felt she also felt anger. It didn't feel like anger though, it felt like something else. Jealousy.</p><p>When Cress arrived back at the castle she ran down to the kitchen, and over to the barrels that concealed the Hufflepuff common room. She tapped the barrels in a hurry, she didn't really want anyone to see her, -she was okay with the house elves seeing her, it wasn't like they were going to tell everyone that Crescent had been bawling her eyes out in the kitchen- as soon as the lid slid open Cress darted inside. She sprinted towards her room, when she reached her dormitory she flung open the door, and sprawled herself on her bed and started sobbing into her pillow. How was she ever going to be able to tell Thorne she liked him now? He definitely did not feel the same way, at least it didn't look like that after what Cress had just seen.</p><p>"Cress? Are you okay?" a voice asked. Cress looked up to see Winter leaning over her with a worried look on her face.</p>
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<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Cress's New Best Friend (A Tissue Box)</h2></a>
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    <p>"Yeah, I'm fine," Cress sniffed and wiped at her eyes with her hands in a hurry, as if Winter hadn't already seen the tears. In addition to that her eyes were probably red already, and she was definitely not fine! She was the opposite of fine!</p><p>"Accio tissues," Winter said with a wave of her wand, a box of tissues flew from Winter's nightstand and into her hand. She took a tissue out off the box with a graceful hand movement -Everyone at Hogwarts loved Winter, she was graceful and also very beautiful, despite the scars on her face. Well not everyone loved her but almost everyone loved her, how could you not love her?- and gave it to Cress. Cress took the tissue and wiped the tears away and also the snot.</p><p>"Thank you," Cress told her. She sat up in bed, she felt so pathetic lying down.</p><p>"What happened?" the other girl asked curiously. Cress didn't really want to tell anyone what had happened, and she in general didn't want to admit to anyone else that she had a crush on Thorne, it had been hard enough to admit it to herself! Maybe she could use obliviate on herself, and maybe she would forget about Thorne kissing that girl and forget about her huge crush on him. No. It was too dangerous! She couldn't think like that! Everything would be fine, she would probably forget about the kiss and eventually she would stop being in love with Thorne, and everything would go back to normal!</p><p>"Cress? What happened?" Winter asked again. Snowball -Cress's cat- jumped up into Cress's bed and lay down in her lap. He started purring softly as Cress scratched him behind his ear.</p><p>"Nothing," she quickly replied. Maybe she should ask Winter to use obliviate on her? It would be a lot easier.. Then Cress started crying again. Snowball was taken off guard, by the sudden movement and went over to Winter's lap instead.</p><p>"Hello there little friend," she whispered to the white cat. The door to their room flew open and in came Iko. This also startled the cat, however he stayed put in Winter's lap as opposed to Cress's which he had left because of her crying and shaking.</p><p>"I have so many assignments! Oh my stars I think my brain is going to melt! Cress can you help me with my potio-" Iko stopped the moment she saw Cress. Winter began petting the cat to calm it down.</p><p>"Oh stars! Are you okay Cress?" Iko asked. Cress nodded, but the moment she started nodding more tears spilled down her cheeks. She was going to die of dehydration! Winter carefully handed her another tissue without moving to much, so she wouldn't disturb the cat that was now almost asleep.</p><p>"When I came here a couple of minutes ago she was crying her eyes out. She keeps telling me she's fine," Winter informed Iko. Iko sat down on the floor, in front of the bed.</p><p>"Okay listen to me Cress, it's pretty obvious that you are not fine. So please pull yourself together and tell us what's going on!" Iko demanded, crossing her arms across her chest. "Thorne and-" Cress began, but immediately broke down into sobs. Winter handed Cress another tissue without waking up the cat, at this rate the tissue box would be empty in 5 minutes.</p><p>"Take a deep breath in and then release your breath slowly, it always helps me" Winter smiled. Taking her advice, Cress took a deep breath in and then she released her breath slowly.</p><p>"Better?" Winter asked her. Cress managed to nod without breaking down, which was quite the improvement.</p><p>"Tell us then! Thorne and..." Iko exclaimed clearly getting a bit frustrated.</p><p>"Sorry," Cress mumbled, she took a deep breath again and released it.</p><p>"I went down to the quidditch pitch to tell Thorne," Cress paused. She was conflicted, did she really want to tell them that she had feelings for Thorne? Well.. It would be kind of hard to explain what had happened and just brush over that part. If she brushed over that part it would seem odd that she was bawling her eyes out. Who would sob hysterically because their best friend kissed someone!?</p><p>"To tell him what!?" Iko asked impatiently. Cress took a deep breath.</p><p>"To tell him my feelings about him," Cress said.</p><p>"Wait! Hold up! Cress? What do you mean with your feelings for Thorne? Why haven't you told us any of this? When did you begin having romantic feelings for him?" Iko asked flinging her arms all over the place as she talked, clearly offended by the fact that Cress hadn't shared any of this information with her or Winter.</p><p>"Can you let me finish telling what happened before I start crying again?" she answered.</p><p>"Fine," Iko responded and recrossed her arms.</p><p>"So when I came down to the qudditch pitch, I saw him making out with another girl. I kno-" she drew in a deep breath. "I know he has the right to kiss and make out with whoever he wants to, and I know it's something he does all the time. But it's different now that I have feelings for hi-" she started shedding tears again before she could finish her sentence, and she gratefully accepted another tissue offered to her by Winter.</p><p>"I've always told you he was bad news," Iko said matter-of-factly.</p><p>"Iko, this isn't really the best timing," Winter said stroking the cat's fur.</p><p>"I know it's bad timing, but she should have seen it coming. He is a Slytherin after all..." Iko said in an attempt to at defense. Cress chose to ignore the comment.</p><p>"When did you fall for him?" Winter asked smiling a small dreamy smile. Cress's hand automatically flew to the crescent moon pendant Thorne had bought for her. She remembered his fingers brushing against her skin, a blush warmed her face the moment she thought about that particular memory. All of a sudden she remembered the way Thorne fingers had rummaged the other girls skin and started weeping again.</p><p>"Come on Cress! He is just a boy! Pull yourself together and go tell him how you feel!" Iko groaned.</p><p>"But he was kissing another girl, he clearly isn't interested in me!" Cress exclaimed. Iko raised an eyebrow at Cress</p><p>"You do realize it's Thorne we're talking about right? He's always flirting with everyone, it's most likely just another fling!" Iko said. Cress thought about it for a moment and figured she was probably right. Cress wiped at her tears with a tissue she had just received from Winter.</p><p>"You're probably right! I'll do it! I am going to tell him how I feel," Cress announced and scratched Snowball behind his ears.</p>
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<a name="section0009"><h2>9. It's Just the Vinegar</h2></a>
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    <p>It was an early sunny morning in April that Cress decided that she was actually going to tell Thorne how she felt about him. She had been delaying it for quite a while and felt that it was time. It had been several weeks since her talk with Iko and Winter.</p><p>"Today I'm actually going to do it," she said excitedly.</p><p>"I'm actually going to do it today Snowball!" she told her cat when he cooked his head at her in a way that could show disbelief. Sometimes Cress felt like Snowball was the only friend she could truly tell her feelings to, because she knew he wouldn't judge her. If Snowball judged her he didn't say anything -probably because he was a cat-, and that was something Cress was really thankful for! She kissed Snowball on the top of his head, Snowball closed his blue eyes and purred in appreciation.</p><p>Thorne had agreed to meeting Cress just outside the castle. Cress wanted to stay close to the door in case she needed to make a quick escape. She felt herself getting even more nervous as time went by. Honestly Cress wasn't sure she would be able to keep herself standing up straight, she tried reassuring herself that everything was fine. She knew that even if he didn't feel the same way he would never deliberately hurt her feelings, therefore Cress didn't have to worry. Well.. She had to worry about her feelings not being requited, but if he didn't like her back she knew he would be nice about it. He was her best friend after all.</p><p>"Hi Cress," Thorne greeted and smiled, he was standing right in front of her. Her thoughts had been in a place so far away that she hadn't seen him approaching.</p><p>"Hi," she responded quickly, hoping that he hadn't noticed how fast she had responded -he definitely had, and he definitely noticed that something was not right- before he could comment on her weird behavior Cress hastily stammered "I-I have s-something important t-to t-tell you". Thorne laughed at her stuttering she joined in with a nervous laugh.</p><p>"I-I am.." she stuttered. "Oh stars," she mumbled as well as shaking her head.</p><p>"I'm sorry, it's just hard telling you this," she told him, smiling a nervous smile and drawing in a shaky breath.</p><p>"Cress," he said, he probably sensed her nervousness so he placed a hand on her shoulder to calm her down and reassure her. It didn't exactly calm her down.</p><p>"You can tell me anything," he told her, he gave her an encouraging smile and squeezed her shoulder. On the inside Cress was freaking out, she wished he would remove his hand, it was so distracting. Cress gathered as much courage as she could muster. She wasn't sure if it was enough, but she couldn't manage more, she drew in a deep breath.</p><p>"Do you remember when I told you I had a crush on this guy?" Cress asked.</p><p>"Yes," he answered a bit confused.</p><p>"Well.. I lied to you, I told you he was a Hufflepuff, however he is actually a Slytherin..." she told him, she hoped that he would be able to read between the lines.</p><p>"Who is it?!" he exclaimed clearly very interested -he was probably very excited- , was Thorne so oblivious that he couldn't see where this was going? He obviously wasn't able to read between the lines. Cress decided to use up her last bit of courage. His hand felt warm against her shoulder. It was now or never.</p><p>"It's you Thorne. I'm in love with you," she whispered, she wasn't sure if he had heard her low whisper or not, but when she looked up at his surprised face she understood that he had heard her. Maybe he was surprised she liked him back, maybe he was going to kiss her now. She felt herself blushing at the thought.</p><p>"What!?" he exclaimed. Then he started laughing. Cress felt tears stinging her eyes, her lip started quivering. Thorne definitely did not like her back, he thought she was joking! She would not start crying, she looked up and began blinking rapidly to stop the tears from falling.</p><p>"I think it would be best if we stay friends?" he said in an apologetic way.</p><p>"Yeah.. Just friends.." she mumbled. When should she make her escape? Now was probably the best time, if she didn't return to her room she would probably die from embarrassment.</p><p>"I-I will g-go now," Cress stuttered and rushed away from Thorne, racing towards the entrance of the massive castle.</p><p>"Cress!" Thorne yelled. She ignored him.</p><p>"Wait!" he shouted, however that made her go even faster. He was fast, but she was also fast. The tears were streaming down her face now. How could she have been so foolish? Why would he fall for her? She probably looked ridiculous as she went through the corridors of the school, but she didn't care.</p><p>"Cress!" she heard Thorne yelling again. She had almost reached the kitchen, luckily for her she had never shown Thorne the knocking pattern that opened the secret doorway to the Hufflepuff common room. Cress arrived in the kitchen, she hurriedly tapped the barrels, crawling inside in a rush and glancing over her shoulder. Fortunately Thorne hadn't followed her. Cress leaned against the door once it had closed, she slid down to the floor. That was when she really started crying, she was sobbing. There were people in the common room, in spite of her loud sobbing they seemed to be ignoring her.</p><p>"Cress..?" Thorne said from the other side. Why had he followed her, why couldn't he just leave her alone when it was obvious he only liked her as a friend... She had definitely ruined their friendship.</p><p>"Go away," she managed to press out. He didn't say anything for a while, he was clearly contemplating if he should stay or go.</p><p>"Crescent.." she sobbed at the use of her full name, he only called her Crescent when he wanted to annoy her or when he was trying to comfort her. It was most likely the latter.</p><p>"Go away Carswell," she murmured.</p><p>"Cress, please... Just let me speak," he said in a low tone, but he was no doubt leaning against the barrels because Cress could hear him very clearly. She buried her face in her knees.</p><p>"Go!" Cress cried.</p><p>"Cress? Are you okay?" someone asked. Oh stars! Who was it? Why would no one leave her alone?! She looked up and through her watery eyes she saw Kai.</p><p>"Yeah, I'm fine.." she lied, unfortunately he wasn't convinced. Perhaps it was because she started crying again just as she finished her sentence.</p><p>He was standing outside the Hufflepuff common room, leaning against the doorway. He had rejected Cress so he wouldn't hurt her feelings, now Cress thought he didn't like her back. The truth was that he was madly in love with her. That was why he laughed when she told him that she liked him, he was so relieved and happy that she liked him too! The problem was that he knew that he would eventually hurt her, that's what he did. He seduced girls, he kissed them and when they told him they loved him, he would freak out and never talk to them again. Carswell Thorne was afraid of commitment. It was the reason he had decided to tell Cress that they should stay friends, even though it hurt his feelings. He didn't want to hurt Cress, but that was exactly what he did. Thorne heard someone talking to Cress. He couldn't quite hear what they were saying, well he could hear what she said, but not what he said. He could tell that Cress was crying.</p><p>"Please let me in Cress," Thorne pleaded as he rapidly knocked on one of the barrels. Then he realized what he had done. Cress had once told him that if someone knocked in the wrong pattern they would get doused in vinegar, and he was fairly certain that the right pattern was not knocking on the same barrel three times..</p><p>"Aces," he muttered. He was about to sprint away from the barrels, but he was to slow. The vinegar poured over him, it wasn't a lot. It was only a small bucket, however the amount wasn't the problem, it was the smell that was the problem.</p><p>"Well this is just great isn't it!" Thorne shouted in his frustration. Everything was a mess, Cress thought he only liked her as a friend, he had rejected her to not hurt her feelings -but hurt her was exactly what he had done- and now she probably thought that he was mad at her, however he was mad at the vinegar.</p><p>"Cress please let me in! I just got doused in fucking vinegar!" He had messed up so bad! How long had she been in love with him? Had she wanted to kiss him as often as he had wanted to kiss her. His eyes stung, Thorne didn't know if it was the vinegar or if it was tears.</p><p>"Carswell I think you should leave, Cress doesn't feel like talking to you right now," Kai told him, as much as Thorne didn't want to he turned around and headed for the showers -well he obviously wanted to shower, he just didn't want to leave Cress- and hoped his eyes would stop watering. He was not crying it was just the vinegar, Carswell Thorne didn't cry. It was just the vinegar he kept telling himself as tears spilled down his cheeks.</p><p>Cress explained to Kai what had happened, she didn't tell him any details. When he finally left her alone she went to her dormitory and returned to her good friend. The tissue box.</p>
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<a name="section0010"><h2>10. The Gentleman</h2></a>
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    <p>He knew he had messed up really badly. April slowly went by and May was right around the corner. Thorne hadn't talked to Cress in two weeks. The whole point of telling Cress he only wanted to be friends was so their friendship wouldn't be ruined! Unfortunately things hadn't gone as he had thought they would, and because he was an idiot their friendship was ruined. At least he assumed so, since Cress hadn't spoken a word to him for two solid weeks. He had caught her looking longingly at him during breakfast though, which was probably a good sign? Or maybe it was just his imagination, -most likely just his imagination- Cress probably thought he was a dick, in addition to that she most likely hated him. Which was why he was waiting for her to approach him. But what if she didn't hate him -very unlikely, but he was allowed to hope, right?-, what if she was waiting for him to approach her!? The only thing Thorne knew for sure was that it was all a mess, and it was all his fault.</p><p>She knew she had messed up really badly. Thorne hadn't talked to her in two weeks -two whole weeks!-, he no doubt hated her. Well, he probably didn't hate her, come on! They had been best friends for five years! Although he perhaps didn't exactly hate her, he hadn't talked to her for two weeks. Was he avoiding her? Was she avoiding him -yes, she was most certainly avoiding him- Well not exactly avoiding, more like not talking to him and looking longingly at him when he looked in the opposite direction. She was also positive that he had caught her once, which was very awkward. Maybe he didn't want anything to do with her, or maybe he was just waiting for her to approach him. The only thing Cress knew for sure was that it was all a mess, and it was all her fault.</p><p>Cress was on her way to charms class when she crashed into someone, -literally crashed into them- her books dropped when they collided. In addition to her books plummeting to the ground she also managed to drop her parchment, her wand and her quill. Of course with Cress' luck the person she had bumped into was none other than Thorne.</p><p>"Hello," Cress offered politely, whilst picking up her books in a hurry.</p><p>"Hey," Thorne replied. He picked up one of the books she had dropped, -The Standard Book of Spells by Miranda Goshawk, Grade 5- and handed it to her.</p><p>"On your way to charms?" he asked. Cress wanted to respond something along the lines of: Well duh? What does it look like? -she hadn't realized she had this much anger and frustration built up in her, it was probably just because she was annoyed that she had managed to drop all her books. Also possibly because of the fact that it was so cliché, girl crashes into her crush and drops all her books, boy helps girl pick up books- But that's not how she responded.</p><p>"Yeah," Cress picked up her parchment and put it on the top of her stack of books.</p><p>"I'm going the way you were heading in too, I could walk you," Thorne offered. "I mean, only if you want to though," he added quickly.</p><p>"Yeah, yeah... Of course we can walk together," Cress responded.</p><p>"There's something I need to tell you," they both blurted out at the same time. They both started laughing.</p><p>"You go first," Cress said.</p><p>"Ladies first," Thorne insisted and gave her his signature smile. She turned away so he wouldn't see her blushing. Cress drew in a breath. It would be hard for her to tell him what she was going to tell him, but she had to if she wanted their friendship to return to the way it had always been.</p><p>"I agree with what you said two weeks ago. We should just stay friends. It would be best," she told him with a small smile. Crescent Moon Darnel was a huge liar. She did not agree with what Carswell Thorne said two weeks ago, they should not just stay friends. However it would be the best, at least if she wanted her best friend back.</p><p>"Yeah, I totally agree," he said. Oh stars! Hadn't he trampled her heart enough?</p><p>"Yeah," she agreed and nodded.</p><p>"Well, here's my class so I should go," Thorne pointed at the door next him.</p><p>"See you later Cress," he said as he slipped into the classroom. Cress lifted her hand in a small wave. The moment the door closed she let out a deep breath.</p><p>Why had he acted like a gentleman!? WHY!? Why had he let Cress talk first? Aces! Maybe Cress had gotten over her crush on him? That was probably why she had agreed with what he had told her two weeks ago, something he himself didn't agree with. At least now he knew she didn't hate him.</p><p>"Carswell are you listening to what's going on in this class?" the teacher asked.</p><p>"Yes of course, I'm listening! I always pay attention in class Miss," he replied, -resisting the urge to snicker at the irony of his comment. Carswell Thorne always paid attention in class- returning to his thoughts.</p>
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<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Hogsmeade</h2></a>
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    <p>"I think you've practiced enough Cress, the potions O.W.L. Is in two days! In fact I think you've been practicing all your O.W.L.s way too much, you need a break!" Cress shook her head at Thorne's suggestion and emerged herself deeper in her notes from classes.</p><p>"Cress, I'm serious if you continue you'll overwork yourself!" The small blonde ignored him and kept on studying.</p><p>"How about we go to Hogsmeade?" Thorne proposed and squeezed himself up against her shoulder. His proposal immediately peaked her interest, the reason being that Cress had never been to Hogsmeade. Sybil had never signed her permission slip. According to her Cress didn't need to spend any money on silly wizard stuff, -In general Sybil had never liked that Cress was a witch. When Sybil adopted her, she just wanted a normal kid. Cress had never fully understood why Sybil had wanted a kid, because even before she found out that Cress was a "freak" she hadn't treated her very nicely- therefore Cress had never been to Hogsmeade. Thorne knew how badly she wanted to go there and he was using it against her.</p><p>"Please come with me Cress," he blinked at her with puppy eyes. "I know you want to," he said dragging out the O.</p><p>"You are unbelievable!" she exclaimed, smiling and shaking her head as she shoved -even tough she wanted to keep him as close as he was at that moment- him away.</p><p>"But how are we going to get there? First of all the next trip isn't until after the O.W.L.s, and in addition to that I don't have a permission slip and you know that very well. I'd love to go Thorne, but there is no way I can go there," she said trying to hide her disappointment.</p><p>"Well you see Cress," Thorne put his arm around her, she felt a blush spread across her face. he held his hand out in front of them and waved it around as he explained. "I know about a secret passageway that goes straight from Hogwarts to the cellar of Honeydukes," "But we'll get in trouble Thorne, it's not a very good idea," Cress told him in a doubtful tone.</p><p>"Trouble is my middle name," he responded nonchalantly. "Come on Cress! You need to take a break from studying," he said, a bit more serious. She thought about it for a couple of seconds, even though she already knew the answer, because she really wanted to go to Hogsmeade.</p><p>"Fine, but only because it's Saturday and I really want to go there," Cress declared.</p><p>"I knew you'd say yes in the end, no one is able to resist suggestions from me!" Thorne announced clapping his hands together with glee. Which meant he finally removed the arm that had been slung around her, -much to her relief, but it also upset her a bit, since she didn't want him to remove it- and suggestions from him wasn't the only thing Cress couldn't resist.</p><p>They arrived in the cellar of Honeydukes and managed to sneak up into the store, and out to the street undetected.</p><p>"Wow," Cress uttered voice full of astonishment, eyes filled with -and a bag filled with candy- wonder. Thorne really wanted to squish her with a hug as well as spreading kisses all over her beautiful face at that moment. She looked so content and happy. Afterward he took her to Gladrags Wizardwear. There were racks of quirky and peculiar clothing. There was an unusual amount of socks, it seemed to be what they specialized on. Cress picked up a pair of socks and held them up inspecting them.</p><p>"Apparently these will start screaming loudly if your feet are too smelly," she handed the socks over to Thorne, and turned her back on him and kept on walking as she browsed over the items in the shop.</p><p>"You should buy them," Cress added jokingly. He considered it for a moment.</p><p>"I'm gonna buy them," he told her.</p><p>"Seriously?" she asked and looked at him with a questioning look. She lifted up a green sweater to look at it, but quickly put it back when it made a weird growling sound. The two teenagers both looked at each other in surprise as they tried stifling their laughter. They kept on walking, when Cress stopped. Thorne crashed into her back and muttered an ushered sorry, however Cress was not paying attention.</p><p>"Look at that beautiful dress!" Cress exclaimed, pointing at a beautiful dress in deep royal blue.</p><p>"I have to try that on!" she took the dress down from where it was hanging and rushed to go try it on, before Thorne could say anything. He stood there a bit overwhelmed by her enthusiasm as he waited for her to come out of the changing room. After a while Cress stepped out from behind the curtain of the changing room. She looked stunning in the gown of raw silk and chiffon, the color of the dress matched her eyes. The skirt billowing out from the bodice that clung perfectly to her body.</p><p>"What do you think?" Cress asked him, smiling as she did a little twirl in the dress.</p><p>"You look like a goddess of the sea commanding the waves," he thought -when had he become so cheesy?-, what he told Cress wasn't exactly that. "You look good, it's a really nice dress. When are you going to use it though?" he asked.</p><p>"I don't know, the next Yule ball? I don't know," she told him honestly, fiddling with the end of her long blonde braid.</p><p>"I'll just go change back and then we can go," Cress stepped into the changing room, sliding the curtain back in place. She shyly poked her head out.</p><p>"Are you seriously buying those socks?" she gestured towards the socks he was holding with a careful nod of her head.</p><p>"Yup," he affirmed, Cress shook her head with a smile. She closed the curtain and began taking off the dress. The fact that Cress was basically undressing right next to him made a blush appear –a blush wasn't exactly the only thing that appeared- so he tried to not think about it. He decided to pay for the socks and wait outside. A couple of minutes later -when his blush and other things had disappeared, well almost but not completely. Not visible at least- Cress exited Gladrags Wizardwear with a shopping bag in her hand. They then went to Tomes and Scrolls where Cress bought a couple of books, they also went to Zonko's Joke Shop.</p><p>"How about we go there?!" Cress suggested pointing at Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop.</p><p>"It's mostly for couples, but they have really good tea," Thorne told Cress, she grabbed his hand and dragged him towards the Tea shop in a hurry.</p>
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<a name="section0012"><h2>12. Carswell Thorne You Are Such An Asshole</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Cress is Irish and Thorne is Scottish in this btw, so I imagine them as having those accents, and try to write vocab/slang from their respective accents, but I'm from Norway so yeah...</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When they had settled at a table, and ordered their drinks Cress looked around the shop and realized there were not a lot of people in the cramped teashop. However it was clear that those people were couples from the way they were leaning against each other. From the outside the small teashop had looked cute, on the inside it was still very pink, the difference was that it was very tacky on the inside.</p><p>"So how did you know about the secret passageway?" Cress asked Thorne as one of the couples began making out and she felt the need to have something else to pay attention to. Instead of answering her he pulled out a blank piece of parchment and waved it in front of her, before quickly stuffing it back into his robes.</p><p>"What I just showed you is a very special map, it shows every secret passageway out of Hogwarts and into Hogwarts. In addition to that it shows you where everyone in the entire school is at this exact moment. First you have to activate it though, I'll show you when we're going back," he told her.</p><p>"Thorne, that could be dangerous! What if it contains dark magic?" she said, and although these were legitimate concerns Thorne snickered at her comment.</p><p>"It's harmless Cress! I've been using it forever! I'll show you later okay?" he informed her.</p><p>"Alright then," she responded. A moment later their drinks arrived, a cup of steaming strawberry tea for her and a cup of cappuccino for him. They both thanked the waitress for the drinks.</p><p>"I'm a bit surprised that you didn't order tea, since that was basically all you told me about this place," Cress chuckled and took a sip of her tea. "Oh my stars this is really good!" she exclaimed. Thorne laughed at her and took a sip of the cappuccino.</p><p>"I told you about the tea, because I know how much you love tea," he winked at her, which made her a bit flustered, but she tried to hide it.</p><p>"You know that Irish people like tea too, right? It isn't just British people who like tea," Cress told him pretending to be offended.</p><p>"Well Scottish people like tea too Cress, you know that, right?" he asked her faking offense too. Both of them began laughing.</p><p>"Can I taste the tea? I've never had that one," Thorne asked her as he lifted up the cup of tea.</p><p>"Sure, but only if you let me taste the cappuccino," she took the cappuccino and took a sip as he took a sip of the tea. Cress wrinkled her nose at the taste of coffee, although she didn't like coffee she sometimes wished she did. Which was why she always gave it a taste when the opportunity was presented to her.</p><p>"Stop!" she grinned and swatted at Thorne's arm as he kept drinking. Even though she felt her heart speeding up, a bit inside her ribcage the moment her fingers brushed the side of his arm, she tried ignoring it to the best of her abilities.</p><p>"That's my tea you jerk!" Cress uttered, he put the cup down on the table.</p><p>"Carswell Thorne you are such an asshole!" Cress exclaimed, and drank the little amount that was left-and tried not to think about the fact that her lips were placed exactly where his had been, and failed. This was probably the closest she would get to a kiss, she was allowed to dream wasn't she?-, it was barely half a sip. Thorne grinned at her with his signature smirk. Cress saw the waitress coming towards them as Thorne drank the cappuccino too.</p><p>"Would the young couple like something else?" the waitress asked when she arrived at their table. Cress froze in her seat and felt a blush spreading across her face.</p><p>"We're not a couple! We're just friends," they both hurriedly blurted out, they both said it at the exact same time. "And uhmm.. No we don't want anything else.." Thorne quickly told the waitress. "We should get going now shouldn't we Cress?" Cress nodded eagerly, because she was still shocked over the fact that the waitress thought they were a couple. Sure it was a cafe for couples, but still! The waitress gave them their bill, Cress tried to pay for her tea, however he insisted on paying for it. Which was fine with her, since he basically drank the whole thing.</p><p>"Well you two certainly act like a couple," the waitress chuckled as she accepted the money. Thorne chuckled with her, Cress joined in too. Why did Thorne chuckle at the thought of them being together? Would it really be that bad? When they exited the small teashop Cress could have sworn she heard Thorne mutter "I wish", it was probably just wishful thinking.</p><p>"So.. You told me you'd tell me about the map when we were going back... And we're on our way and you still haven't 'activated' the map," Cress said as they were walking down a tunnel that was dimly light by light from their wands.</p><p>"Alright I'll show you," Thorne told her, sitting down on the dirty floor of the tunnel and motioning for her to sit down too. Although she didn't want to sit on the dirty floor she did it.</p><p>"Okay," Thorne fished the map out from his robes. "I know the best ways by heart now so I don't really need it for anything other than checking where everyone is," he stated as if it was the most normal thing in the world.</p><p>"What? 'Checking where everyone are' what is that supposed to mean?" Cress exclaimed.</p><p>"Just let me show you," he lay the map down on the ground then he took her hand which she held her wand in, leading it towards the map in order to have more light on the map. Thus leading to her forming a blush, which made her very grateful that he led the light away from her face.</p><p>"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," Thorne declared and tapped the map lightly with his wand, words began to slowly appear on the map.</p><p>"The Marauders Map," Cress read aloud, Thorne began folding the map out.</p><p>"Wait a second! Is this a map of the castle?" Cress questioned.</p><p>"Yes, indeed it is. It shows you where everyone is located right this second," Thorne responded. "In addition to that it shows you every secret passageway out of Hogwarts."</p><p>"That's pretty cool. You probably sit in your dorm watching everyone at night like a proper creep huh?" she joked.</p><p>"Sometimes, but I mostly use it to make sure there are no teachers around when I sneak down to the kitchen for a midnight snack," he told her, Cress laughed a bit.</p><p>"You seriously get midnight snacks?" Cress asked, Thorne nodded in response.</p><p>"Why haven't anyone in Hufflepuff caught you then? Because I know a lot of people also get midnight sna-," Cress sighed and put her head in her hands. "I'm so stupid, you literally just told me why. Oh my stars.. You often ask me why I'm not in Ravenclaw since I'm so smart. What I just said is your answer," Cress told him and shook her head at her own stupid words. Thorne chuckled.</p><p>"I think you're smart enough," he smiled and Cress smiled back. "Thank you."</p><p>"We should get going now," Thorne suggested, tapping the map with his wand. "Mischief managed." He lifted himself up from the ground and stretched his hand out to her. Cress took his hand and dragged herself up from the ground, she also picked up her shopping bags from the ground. The warmth of her hand in his made her a bit flustered and she quickly let go to remain in control of her thoughts.</p>
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<a name="section0013"><h2>13. Fingerguns</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When they returned from their small excursion, they went to their respective common rooms, and then to their dorms. Cress closed the door behind her, she put her back against the door and threw the shopping bags on her bed. She sank down to the floor with her back against the door. With the feeling of contentedness and a small smile on her face.</p><p>"Where have you been?" Iko asked in a teasing tone.</p><p>"I was studying," Cress answered from the floor. Iko moved over to Cress's bed and began ruffling through her bags.</p><p>"Studying? At Gladrags Wizardwear? Or was it Honeydukes?" Iko questioned full of disbelief. Cress got up from the floor and went across the room, she sat down on her bed next to Iko.</p><p>"Okay listen, you can't tell anyone this," Cress told Iko in a hushed tone. "Ok?" Iko replied a bit hesitant.</p><p>"Thorne and I went to Hogsmeade," Cress whispered. She picked up Snowball from the floor and began petting his white soft fur.</p><p>"How?" Iko asked confused. Cress ran her hand through the cat's fur, she ran it from his head and down to the end of his tail. The cat purred and walked over Cress's lap and rubbed his face against her stomach, he went over to Iko and began cuddling with her.</p><p>"Secret passageway," Cress replied as if it was the most normal thing in the world, she sat back on her bed and supported herself with her hands.</p><p>"What? Okay, I'm not even gonna bother asking about that. Why are you smiling and so content? I don't understand, did Thorne profess his undying love for you?" Iko petted Snowball behind one of his ears.</p><p>"No.. I bought a really nice dress," Cress pulled the blue dress out from the Gladrags Wizardwear bag.</p><p>"That is a really nice dress, but is that really why you are so super duper happy?" Iko asked as she studied the dress.</p><p>"Well.. So.. Uhm.. You see, the waitress at Madam Puddifoot's Tea-" Iko held up a finger the moment Cress mentioned Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop.</p><p>"Hold on a second Crescent! You and your best friend who happens to be your crush went to MADAM PUDDIFOOT'S TEA SHOP?! You know that it's a Tea Shop where only couples go right?" Cress's giddy smile disappeared and a blush appeared when Iko mentioned that little detail.</p><p>"Okay let me explain myself.. I thought it looked really cute and I suggested we go there, Thorne told me it was for couples, but he also told me the tea was really good.. So like we obviously had to go there," Cress told Iko, Iko raised an eyebrow at her.</p><p>"Just let me continue, okay?" the other girl gave Cress a swift nod. "As I was telling you before.. The waitress at the Tea Shop asked if 'the young couple would like anything else?' we told her we aren't a couple and that we're just friends. She was like 'well you two certainly act like a couple' and when we were leaving the shop I think I heard Thorne say 'I wish'. It was probably just wishful thinking, but yeah... That's why I am so 'super duper happy'," Cress told Iko and as she came towards the part about her most likely wishful thinking, her tempo sped up a lot. Iko just looked at Cress for a moment. "Geez word vomit much? Well, it could be wishful thinking.. You know what Cress?" Iko asked Cress as she calmly petted Snowball. "What?" Cress responded.</p><p>"Your life would be a lot easier if you just told Thorne you still have feelings for him," Iko said.</p><p>"I know," Cress replied, burying her face in her hands.</p><p>Thorne closed the door to the dorm behind him, he put his back against the door and threw the shopping bags on his bed. He sank down to the floor with his back against the door. With the feeling of contentedness and a giddy smile on his face.</p><p>"What's wrong with you?"Jacin asked</p><p>"What do you mean?" Thorne replied</p><p>"I mean why are you sitting on the floor and smiling like an idiot?" Jacin told him</p><p>"None of your business," Thorne huffed.</p><p>"Why do you have shopping bags from Hogsmeade?" Jacin lifted an eyebrow and gestured towards said bags.</p><p>"None of your business," Thorne went over to his bed and picked up the bags and shoved them into his closet.</p><p>As Thorne went out to the castle grounds he saw Cress sitting on a bench enjoying the warm rays of the sun. A long fishtail braid was slung over her shoulder, she held a book in her hands. She didn't seem to notice him as he approached, the petite blonde was quite occupied by the book she was reading.</p><p>"How did the Potion O.W.L. Go? Did you fail miserably, because of me?" Thorne asked her with a grin as he leaned against a tree next to the bench. Her head lifted up from the book, she quickly stuffed a bookmark in her current spot and closed it.</p><p>"Hmm?" Cress asked laying the book down in her lap.</p><p>"Did you say anything?"</p><p>"Well I was just wondering how the Potion O.W.L. Went," Thorne told her, sticking his hands into the front pockets of his pants.</p><p>"Oh, uhm.. It went well I guess? But I won't really know for sure until I get the results."</p><p>Thorne nodded in response. "I was a bit worried I might have ruined it for you, I probably took 4-6 hours away from you of precious studying," he told her. And looked down at his feet, to hide the small smile that formed when he thought of their trip to Hogsmeade.</p><p>"I think it went okay," Cress informed him as she picked at the end of her braid.</p><p>"Uhm, well I should probably study for my Muggle Studies O.W.L. Considering the fact that it's tomorrow," he announced and pointed over his shoulder with his thumb. He twirled around and stuffed the hand back into his pocket. He heard Cress standing up behind him.</p><p>"I could help you," Cress said. "I was raised as a muggle you know.." she mentioned as an afterthought. Although Thorne would love to spend time with Cress, he actually found muggle studies quite interesting. He really didn't want to fail, and Cress would be more of a distraction than she would be helpful. Of course she wouldn't try to distract him on purpose, it wasn't her fault she was so beautiful.</p><p>"I'll manage it on my own, but I'll find you if I need help," He spun around and gave her a wink and fingerguns. When he turned around and began walking towards the library, Thorne preceded to mentally facepalm a million times, at his stupid attempt to charm Cress. What even was that? A wink and fingerguns? If Cress had any remaining feelings for him they were definitely gone now.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0014"><h2>14. The Owl</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When the summer holiday rolled around, Cress felt a surge of relief. Although she was relieved, in a way she was also a bit upset. Summer meant she was done with O.W.L.s, however summer also meant she had to leave Hogwarts, and Thorne. Worst of all, summer meant she had to return to Sybil. On the train ride she sat with Thorne, as usual. They mostly sat in silence, which was usually how it was when they went away from Hogwarts, when they were on their way to Hogwarts they couldn't stop talking. Thorne was the only one who understood why Cress didn't want to return to Sybil. Cress didn't really talk about Sybil with anyone, except Thorne of course. When Cress was younger she had never understood why Sybil made her feel so bad about herself. She understood now that she was older of course.</p><p>"I'll send you letters okay?" Thorne said with a small smile when the train ride was almost over, and gave her a comforting look. He placed a hand on her shoulder and squeezed it, her shoulder tingled under his touch. Suddenly they heard a loud scream.</p><p>Thorne whispered something and Cress could have sworn he was blushing.</p><p>"What?" Cress shouted over the screaming. Thorne then preceded to take off his shoes, next he took of his socks. The moment he pulled of his socks the screaming stopped very abruptly.</p><p>"The socks worked," Thorne uttered.</p><p>"Oh my stars!" Cress responded and started laughing. Thorne put his shoes back on, and stuffed the socks into the pockets of his pants.</p><p>"I didn't think they would work," he muttered. The train began slowing down and Cress stood up from her seat and supported her weight on the table in between the chairs as the train stopped.</p><p>"Goodbye Thorne," Cress said and gave Thorne a quick hug and felt herself blushing.</p><p>"Goodbye," he responded and gave her a tight hug, she wasn't sure if she would be able to walk. Her whole body was buzzing with contentment. She hurried out of train, Sybil did not like waiting.</p><p>"Well, why are you just standing there? Make yourself useful! Go upstairs and do something on the computer, how about updating my website?" Sybil commanded the moment Cress stepped inside the door.</p><p>"Of course," Cress answered and picked up her bags and ran up the stairs in a rush. She walked down the hallway and slipped through the door to her room. With a sigh she dropped her bags on the floor and sat down at her computer desk in her very cramped room. There was just enough room for a bed, a computer desk and a closet -She had to put Snowball's food, water and his bed under hers-. That was it, and if she rolled her office chair out more than was necessary to sit down the chair crashed into the door. Which was also the reason that her door had a big chip in it. That chip was something that Sybil wasn't very happy about, however if Cress had been given a bigger room there wouldn't be a chip in the door. One time Cress suggested that she could have Sybil's office as her bedroom, she quickly regretted that decision when Sybil began barking about how ungrateful Cress was. Sybil had also stated that Cress was rarely at her house since she was always at that "magic nonsense school" as Sybil liked calling it. After that unfortunate suggestion, Cress had kept quiet when her adoptive mother complained about the chip.</p><p>"Long time no see," Cress sighed at her computer as she pressed the start button and rolled her chair as far back as it could go. The computer fan began whirring and Cress rolled back in. With a few clicks Cress was on Sybil's website, the very familiar slogan stared back at her from the screen "We'll prove you're right!". Cress often wondered what Sybil's employees would say if they knew that it was Sybil's adoptive daughter that made the firm's website. She had often wondered if it was actually legal for Sybil to force Cress to make said website, the people who worked for Sybil would know -considering the fact that they're all lawyers-. She skimmed through the content of the website, what exactly was she meant to update? Cress stood up from her chair and knocked it into the door, she pressed her body out through the small gap that the door allowed. It was better to ask Sybil what she was meant to do and her being mad at Cress, because she couldn't tell exactly what was on Sybil's mind "They should teach you how to tell what people mean at that school of yours!". Rather that than Sybil being mad at her for listening to music and cuddling with Snowball -Cress had always been confused by the fact that Sybil bothered buying Snowball food, and wasn't forcing Cress to buy it herself. Although it confused her she was very thankful for it.- instead of working. She tiptoed down the hallway so Sybil wouldn't be upset with her for making noise. Cress leaned against the banister at the top of the stairs studying the new chandelier that was hanging in the big entryway, she hadn't noticed when she arriv-</p><p>"Crescent!" Sybil barked from the doorway of the kitchen, interrupting Cress's train of thought.</p><p>"What?" Cress responded quickly.</p><p>"Why aren't you in your room?" Sybil questioned and lifted an eyebrow.</p><p>"Well, you see.. You forgot to tell me what to update.. So that's why I was on my way downstairs.. I was going to ask you what I was meant to update," Cress explained with a nervous smile.</p><p>"Fix it, it's not working properly anymore. I thought you knew what to do," Sybil told her.</p><p>"I didn't see anything wrong, can you show me?"</p><p>"I'm busy, it's right over there," Sybil answered and returned to the kitchen, clearly annoyed at Cress's incompetence, well at least in her eyes that's what she was. Cress picked up the papers Sybil had pointed at, discovering that they were graphs of the current hits the website was getting. The numbers on the graphs were very low. "Fix it" meant, make ads appear on peoples screens aka hacking aka something that wouldn't be good if got out.</p><p>Thorne read through the letter again, was it worth it? Was it worth sending to Cress, telling her how he felt and risk ruining their friendship? Maybe Cress still liked him? If she didn't they could part ways as unlikely friends when school started again. A life without Cress would be a sad life. Jacin was okay, but he was not that great of a friend. Cinder was cool, she pretended to hate Thorne, but they both knew she secretly loved when he sat next to her in their classes together. Although Cinder secretly liked talking to him, he didn't think she would like to hang out with him outside classes, a Gryffindor and a Slytherin being friends was even weirder than a Hufflepuff and a Slytherin being friends. Even if Cinder wanted to be friends with him, she seemed a bit busy hanging out with Kai, Thorne was pretty sure there was something going on between them. It wasn't as obvious as Scarlet and Ze'ev -another Gryffindor girl going for a Hufflepuff guy-. Maybe it was worth it, maybe he should stop worrying so much about the outcome. He rolled the letter up and gave it to the owl that had been waiting patiently for him to write the letter. Thorne opened up the window and the owl flew away. He stood there looking at it for a short moment.</p><p>"Shit, what have I done? I've ruined everything,"</p><p>"Shit, shit, shit," Thorne muttered, whilst frantically looking for his wand. After a couple seconds of panicked ruffling through his desk drawers he found the wand.</p><p>"STUPEFY!" he practically screamed, pointing his wand in the owl's direction. Blue light erupted from the tip of the wand, he heard the thump from he owl's landing. Thorne slammed open the door of his room and raced down the stairs. He sprinted towards the general direction of where the owl had landed.</p><p>"Where are you?" Thorne whispered rustling around in the tall grass.</p><p>"What are you doing Carswell?" Janette, one of the maids, asked him. Thorne jumped and tried to hide the wand, that he had taken with him in his rush to find the owl, behind his back.</p><p>"I've already seen the wand," she said pointing at the wand that he had hidden very poorly. "You didn't use magic did you?"</p><p>"I had to.. In my defense it was very important," Thorne told her as he kept on looking for the owl.</p><p>"So important you would risk getting expelled from Hogwarts?" Janette asked, her voice filled with skepticism.</p><p>"If I hadn't stopped that owl my social life would've been ruined," he muttered in response.</p><p>"Where is that stupid owl!?" he groaned.</p><p>"It's right there," Janette said and pointed at a spot in the grass.</p><p>Thorne looked at the spot in front of his feet that Janette had pointed at. He rustled through the grass, his hand hit the soft feathers of the owl. He scooped the stiff bird up in his hands and hastily stuffed the letter into his pocket.</p><p>"Could you take it back inside?" he asked her and handed her the owl</p><p>"Of course," Janette took the owl from him and began walking towards the big mansion.</p><p>"And also, could you avoid telling them that I stupefied the owl?" he asked the maid.</p><p>"Of course, we wouldn't want you to get into trouble, would we?"</p>
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<a name="section0015"><h2>15. Letters</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sometimes the ministry didn't notice when underage wizards used magic, at least if you had other wizards in your family. Maybe this would be one of those times. How could he have been so stupid? Being expelled from Hogwarts would be worse than Cress knowing he liked her. If he got expelled he would probably never see her again! In addition to that if he got expelled how would he explain that to Cress?</p><p>"Oh, what happened?" Thorne mumbled to himself mimicking Cress's voice.</p><p>"Nothing, I just used magic.. You know, to stop an owl from arriving with my love confession to you," he responded to "Cress".</p><p>"Gahhhhh! I'm so stupid," he muttered whilst smacking his palm against his forehead. Thorne decided to sit down and write a new letter to Cress, one that left out the part where he told her he had a major crush on her.</p><p>"Crescent!" Sybil shouted up the stairs.</p><p>"Yes mistress?" Cress replied, poking her head out of her room.</p><p>"There is a letter for you," Sybil told her, voice full with disdain. Cress rushed down the stairs and past Sybil and out the front door. She ran towards Thorne's family owl Millard, who stood perched atop the mailbox. She accepted the letter the owl was offering to her. "Thank you, you'll wait here right?" Cress asked the bird as she ran her hand down the soft feathers of its body.</p><p>"You know Sybil doesn't like it when I take you inside," Cress told the bird when it cooed in disagreement. She gave the bird a quick pat on it's head before she hurried back into the house to read the letter.</p><p>"Make that horrendous bird leave as soon as possible," Sybil told Cress as she made her way up the stairs towards her room.</p><p>"Yes mistress," Cress answered when she reached the door to her room. She blocked the small opening with her body as she slipped inside the room.</p><p>"You know you're not supposed to leave my room," she told Snowball in an apologetic tone. Cress carefully pushed the cat away from the door with her foot whilst closing the door behind her back. The cat looked from Cress to door with its big blue eyes, the gesture seemed to be begging her to let him go greet the hooting owl outside.</p><p>"I know I'm sorry," Cress took one step forward and swung her chair into the chip, which had been caused by the impact of her chair hitting the door again and again. Then she sat down and scooted her chair as close to the desk as possible, she opened the letter from Thorne. The note inside was written in Thorne's crooked loopy handwriting, it reminded her in a way off his crooked grin and fluffy hair. Well his hair wasn't usually fluffy, but when it wasn't styled it was messy and fluffy and super cute! Cress began reading the letter as soon as she was done gushing about how cute Thorne's hair was when it wasn't styled.</p><p>Hi Cress! So I haven't been up to much really I've just been really bored. My parents won't let you come as usual, the whole stupid usual "Oooo! Mudblood! We're purebloods blablabla". It's just bullshit, when we turn 17 I'll visit you all the time, apparation is a very useful thing. Anyways it's all pretty much the usual, my parents nagging a hole in my head, and then waiting for the owl test results. We've already talked about that a lot though. Guess what I overheard mom and dad talking about the other day! So they were very worked up the other day, because apparently Kai "from a great pureblood family" is dating Cinder "a mudblood from a muggle family! An orphan in addition to that!". The most entertaining thing that has happened in this holiday and probably the most exciting thing that will happen. Anyways, what is it with all these Gryffindor gals going for Hufflepuff guys? Nothing more has really happened, write back soon!</p><p>Love Thorne</p><p>Hold on a second? Had he really written "Love Thorne"? He usually just wrote "From Thorne". Cress bent down under her desk and picked up the box where she kept all the letters from Thorne. In a way that sounded creepy if you considered the fact that she had a crush on him, but she'd always had the box. Cress was a very nostalgic person, she liked to keep things, things that most people would consider useless. Cress liked looking back on good memories. She ruffled through the letters and read the bottom on all of them, they all said "From Thorne". Could this mean that he liked her as more than a friend? Or did it just mean that she was overanalyzing everything? As she always did when she had feelings for people. She had a tendency to overthink everything she did, and overanalyzing everything they did. But what if it was a sign? What if this was his way of telling her he liked her? Or maybe he was just closing off the letter, and telling her he loved her as a friend. Cress put all the old letters back in the box and shoved it under her desk. Ink and quills was one of the things from the wizard world that Cress wasn't particularly fond of, so she pulled out a sheet of paper and a pen and began writing her reply.</p>
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<a name="section0016"><h2>16. A Kiss on the Train</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Nothing memorable happened that summer. The highlight of Cress's summer had been the letters from Thorne, which were signed with "Love Thorne". It was a bit creepy and cheesy that that was the highlight of her holiday, but it was the truth. Other than that it had just been work, work, and more work. She was standing next to platform 9 3/4, waiting for Thorne. Snowball meowed impatiently from inside his cage, he probably wanted to see Boots, Thorne's cat. Even though Snowball was a tad bit cuter than Boots, they were basically equal in their cuteness. Snowball was very cuddly whilst Boots on the other hand was extremely playful. Cress felt arms wrapping around her from behind, her whole body froze over. The person standing behind her put their chin on her shoulder.</p><p>"The Unlikely Best friends of Hogwarts, reunited once again," the person whispered in her ear, it was a very familiar Scottish voice.</p><p>"Thorne!" She screamed excitedly. The frost in her body melted, turning her body into a puddle. Cress turned around in his arms and hugged him.</p><p>"Ow, that hurt," he said touching his ear with the hand that wasn't wrapped around her waist.</p><p>"I've missed you," Cress told him bashfully. ,</p><p>"I've missed you too," Thorne admitted, his voice a bit muffled from the hug. Cress decided to suggest that they should probably get going, Thorne agreed. He gave her a final squeeze and slowly slid his arms away from her waist. The hug was broken off a bit awkwardly, but regardless it got them moving. They looked around and made sure no muggles were paying attention to them before ramming into the wall with their carts.</p><p>They went through the wall and preceded to board the train to Hogwarts. Thorne sat next to Cress, it was just the two of them inside the carriage.</p><p>"Cress," Thorne said with an urgency tinting his voice.</p><p>"What?" She asked curiously. He leaned towards her and then he kissed her. She returned the kiss. Cress wasn't exactly sure how it had happened, but she was now sitting on top of his lap. Hands combing through his hair and lips locked with his, her lungs getting short breaths of air. He had one hand on her back and the other was tangled in her long hair. "Cress?" Thorne said a bit hesitant. Her eyes flew open and she felt the mortification settle in. She had fallen asleep. Not only had she fallen asleep in front of Thorne, no she had managed to fall asleep on top of him. The small of her back was touching the outside of his thigh, her torso was on his stomach, her head was on his chest, and her arms were hanging sloppily around him. She looked up at him and felt a blush warm up her face. She removed her hands from around him and lay her back down on his lap. If she wanted the blush to disappear a hundred percent she would have to rid herself with all body contact. "I'm so sorry, how long have I been sleeping?" she covered her face with her hands. Even though it was a bit intimidating laying in Thorne's lap it felt comfortable and comforting after the mortifying situation she had woken up to. It defied all logic to have her body remain in contact with his, but she really liked the feeling of her body against his.</p><p>"The whole trip," he told her, he was silent for a bit before continuing on.</p><p>"You must be tired if you fell asleep in broad daylight," he speculated and gestured towards the window.</p><p>"Yeah, I guess.. I've been working nonstop all summer," Cress dragged her hands down her face.</p><p>"You don't ever get any breaks from Sybil do you?" he asked almost sounding irritated.</p><p>"Well it's not exactly a common occurrence," she told him, confirming his suspicions. "There's not much I can do with that though," Cress sighed.</p><p>"We'll be at Hogwarts soon, which is why I decided to wake you up. We're going to arrive in 10 minutes," Thorne informed her.</p><p>When they arrived in the great hall, they separated and went to the tables that belonged to their respective houses. Cress to Hufflepuff, and Thorne to Slytherin. Thorne sat down next to Jacin. Cress looked over at him before turning her head to her Hufflepuff friends. Cress listened to what her friends had to say about their holidays and tuned in to the conversation when it felt necessary. Cress wasn't exactly absorbed in her food or the conversation, her mind was elsewhere. Her mind kept going back to her dream, more specifically the kiss. In addition the dream wasn't the only thing that her mind kept going back to, it took her back to the aftermath. Thorne hadn't really seemed to care about the fact that she had been sleeping on top of him. In a way that was comforting to her, he hadn't gone out of his way to embarrass her, in fact he hadn't really mentioned that she had been sprawled across him. But at the same time she wished he would've shown some response, maybe even be a bit flustered. However those kinds of things didn't happen in real life, Thorne being flustered because of her was something that only happened in her wildest dreams and fantasies. Cress was sometimes ashamed of her fantasies, even though they never went past kissing. Although she was ashamed, sometimes she was also thankful for the images her brain supplied her with. The images helped her cope with her unrequited crush. She knew that it would be best for her to move on, but she just couldn't bring herself to do so. If Thorne were to start dating someone, then she would move on, but as long as he was available she couldn't see anything wrong with her not moving on. She thought back to the position she had put her body in after she had woken up on the train.</p><p>"Cress? Hello? Earth to Cress!" Iko waved a hand in front of Cress's face.</p><p>"What?" Cress responded a bit startled.</p><p>"Can you pass me the gravy?"</p><p>"Sure," Cress picked up the gravy and passed it to Iko. Cress put her elbow on the table and leaned her cheek against her palm and sighed.</p><p>Thorne looked over at the Hufflepuff table, more specifically he was looking at Cress. She was leaning her face against the palm of her hand which was supported by her elbow. Her long hair was in a messy bun which was something she always did when she ate so she wouldn't get food in her hair, or hair in her food. Thorne thought back to the train ride, back to when she had slept on top of him. He was a bit proud that he had let her sleep peacefully. In that moment when she had been sleeping he could have wrapped his arms around her, but he didn't. In a way that would've been disrespectful, he would've been taking advantage of her. Putting his arms around her when she was sleeping wasn't the worst thing you could do to someone, regardless it was still something she hadn't agreed to. So Thorne just sat there with the petite girl sprawled across his upper body. When he decided it was time to wake her up Cress seemed startled to find herself on top of him. She had slid her body into his lap and had stayed there for the remainder of the train ride. Thorne hadn't looked at her much, because he was certain he would blush if he looked down at the sweet girl laying on his lap.</p>
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<a name="section0017"><h2>17. Just Friends</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Cress sat frozen on the bench, her body filled with panic as she watched Thorne falling through the air. Someone from the other team -her team- bumped into him. Thorne lost his grip and now he was falling down quickly. First his broom hit the ground and then next to it Thorne landed on his back with a thump. Cress's hands had thawed enough for them to cover her mouth, her eyes filled with tears. Cress tore her body away from the bench and ran down to the pitch, down to her unconscious best friend. His fellow Slytherin teammates were gathered around him. She pushed through the crowd and knelt down beside Thorne.</p><p>"We need to get him to the hospital wing," Madam Pomfrey said calmly. A gurney was soon rolled out following Madam Pomfrey's words. Cress backed away from Thorne to make room for everyone to help get him up on the gurney steadily. She stood there watching helplessly, as she fiddled with the end of her long braid.</p><p>"How are you?" Cress asked gingerly, while she strode cautiously toward the bed he lay on.</p><p>"I'm alright except from the fact that well," he waved his hand in front of his eyes, "I can't see anything." Cress sat down on the chair that was adjacent to the bed.</p><p>"Your vision will come back though, won't it?" she questioned gently, sensing that even though Thorne kept up a facade that said that it didn't face him much; the thought of never being able to see anything ever again clearly wore him down. Who wouldn't be torn down slowly with such a thought gnawing at their brain. Thorne sighed and turned his head in the direction where Cress sat, his glassy eyes looking right through her.</p><p>"Madam Pomfrey didn't have the stuff that will fix my eyes. It'll take around 2 weeks to get to Hogwarts. Then, according to Madam Pomfrey, it can take up to 2 weeks to heal my eyes once we get it. I thought magic potions were supposed to have instant effects or something like that?" he replied without a doubt a bit annoyed at how long it would take for him to regain his sight. Cress nibbled on her lip, whilst wondering what to say to calm Thorne down.</p><p>"I'm sure you'll have your sight back in no time!" she told him, she filled her voice with as much encouragement as possible without it sounding too enthusiastic. Cress thought for a short moment before adding "Captain."</p><p>"Captain," Cress said. Thorne felt his mouth pulling into a mischievous grin.</p><p>"Lose your sight and people will finally call you Captain," Thorne noted to himself. He had wanted to be the Team Captain of a Quidditch team for as long as he could remember. And it was definitely no secret that he had tried to get people to call him Captain once he became the Captain of the Slytherin Quidditch team. No one had done so.</p><p>"I should probably get going," she told him, he heard the sound of the chair legs scraping against the floor, as Cress rose up from the chair.</p><p>"See you later," he said.</p><p>"See you later," Cress replied with a giggle when she realized it was a pun.</p><p>"Why are you wearing a blindfold?" Cress asked Thorne as they began to walk to their class.</p><p>"A lot of people felt uncomfortable when I looked right through them. Although to be fair, it was probably a bit creepy."</p><p>"I didn't find it creepy or uncomfortable, I understand how people might feel that way though."</p><p>Thorne stopped walking.</p><p>"I'm not used to walking with a cane," he waved his cane carefully in the air, making sure to not hit anything or anyone. "So can I just hold onto your shoulder while we walk?"</p><p>Cress mumbled something that was supposed to resemble an affirmative response to his question.</p><p>"Can I ask you something else?" he placed his hand on her shoulder with her guidance. The weight of his hand on her shoulder made her heart thump a bit faster in her chest.</p><p>"Sure go ahead," she answered trying to hide any traces of uncertainty or excitement. Her imagination was already running wild, it wasn't like he was about to declare his undying love for her.</p><p>"Would you like to go to the Yule Ball with me?" Thorne asked, flinging her back to reality. She almost sputtered out a loud what, almost. Excitement began to fill her body, doubt stopped her from shrieking yes excitedly. Was it just a joke? No he was her friend. Had she heard him right? Yes. Did he mean it? She did not know.</p><p>"As friends?" Cress asked him, to make sure she wasn't misinterpreting the situation at hand.</p><p>"Yeah, as friends... Of course."</p><p>Cress's mouth formed an O. She was glad Thorne couldn't see her. The hand on her shoulder felt even heavier, it took Cress a tremendous amount of strength to not stumble under all the pressure. How could she have been so foolish to even allow herself to think that he had really wanted to go to the ball with her as something more than just friends. They were just friends.</p><p>"Yes, of course I'll go with you. What kind of friend would I be if I declined an offer like that?"</p><p>They were just friends. Thorne made sure that he was in fact standing next to his bed before preceding to lay down. Of course she'd only want to go with him as friends. He had his chance and he blew it. Did he really expect that she would still have a crush on him after like six months or something. When was it he had been an idiot and rejected Cress again? He couldn't remember. Altogether he should have just told her that no, he didn't want to go to the Yule ball with her as friends. He didn't want them to be just friends. Thorne's mind kept replaying the moment when she'd asked as friends and he had said yes.</p><p>"Do you think Thorne will have his sight back in time for the yule ball?" Iko asked Cress.</p><p>"I don't know, I hope so," Cress stood in front of the long mirror in their room. She was wearing the blue dress she bought when she went to Hogsmeade with Thorne. Iko sat with her legs crossed on the bed that was in front of the mirror. Even though they were going as just friends Cress was still looking forward to the ball. She would try to forget that they were going as friends and then she would gather up enough courage to ask him for a dance.</p><p>"If he can't see it doesn't really matter, he has already seen me with the dress on," Cress lied, she wasn't sure who she was lying to, was it herself or Iko? She stood in front of the mirror studying herself, something looked off. Her long braid was slung over her shoulder and had reached past her butt. Untying her hair tie, she began to untangle her braid. Once she finished untangling the braid her hair had soft waves. "You should wear it down more often," Iko suggested, in response Cress shook her head. "To much work."</p><p>"You hair is to die for!" proclaimed Iko, Cress wasn't sure if she actually meant it or if she was just joking.</p><p>"I need scissors," the petite blonde whispered to herself.</p><p>"Are you going to cut your hair!?" Iko exclaimed, making it apparent that she had heard what Cress whispered. Before she began to turn towards the door, on a quest to find scissors. Giving her roommate a quick nod before stepping out into the hallway.</p><p>"That dress is beautiful on you Cress" said Winter with a smile when Cress entered the common room.</p><p>"Thank you," she responded and gave Winter a smile in return. Lifting her dress so nobody would step on it, the determined girl made her way towards the kitchen. When Cress stood in front of the small hardworking house elves she asked them if they had a pair of scissors, soon one of the elves emerged with scissors which Cress accepted with a thank you. She returned to her room with the scissors where Iko sat, still seated on the bed.</p><p>"Are you actually going to cut your hair?" she asked. Cress slipped out of her gown and lay it down on her bed, to prevent it from being covered in hair. Then she preceded to put on her pajamas. In response to Iko's question she slid her hair in between the two blades of the scissors, she held a steady look on her friend.</p><p>"Yes, I've thought about it for a while to be honest. And I am tired of it. Not only is it in the way all the time! It never looks good, no matter how I try to style it, it always looks horrible! I've had it! Sybil won't let me cut it, not that I have asked her, but I know that she won't let me. So I am going to cut it now no matter what you say," Cress explained to her friend in the form of a rant.</p><p>"Can you at least let me cut it so it's ev-," Iko began, but before she could finish Cress had snipped of a huge chunk of her hair. Her hair fell slowly to the floor, she continued cutting her hair to collarbone length.</p><p>"You can fix it afterward. I want it shorter than this, but I can't cut it evenly in the back. I just wanted to cut it myself. It's supposed to be so symbolic and freeing to cut your hair," the blonde snipped off another chunk of hair. "Wanted to check if it was true," Cress confessed bashfully as she snipped of the last big section of hair. Cress stepped away from all the hair, she produced a broom and swept the hair off to the side. She refrained from skipping to the chair that stood in the corner of the room and walked towards it instead. Then she picked up the chair and put it in front of the mirror. The small girl picked up the scissors that she had placed next to the mirror, on the opposite side of where she had swept all the hair to. Moreover she handed the scissors over to her friend before sitting down on the chair in front of the mirror.</p><p>"Now you may cut my hair," Cress told Iko while trying not to grin, was it normal to be so excited about a haircut?</p>
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<a name="section0018"><h2>18. The Yule Ball</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"I heard rumors that you cut your hair," Thorne revealed.</p><p>"Oh is that so? I will not disclose any information about the issue to the public," Cress replied in a joking way. In response Thorne lifted an eyebrow at her and with feigned offense Thorne preceded to tell her, "I think you are being very ableist right now Crescent! An extremely offensive action! I will have to ask for permission to touch your hair, in order to find out if this rumor is true!"</p><p>"Go ahead," Cress told him a bit too boldly, thinking that he had just been joking. Thorne placed his hand atop of her head. "You're not bald, that much I can say," he slid his fingers through her hair, his fingers fell through abruptly. His hand landed on her shoulder. She knew it would take some time getting used to the big chop, but she was starting to doubt her impulsive decision. Although she had thought about it many times she had never thought she would actually do it. Thorne still had not removed his hand, Cress wasn't sure whether she should comment on it or wait for him to move it.</p><p>"You know you shouldn't really trust every rumor you hear," Cress commented instead, breaking the silence that had settled between them.</p><p>"I didn't trust the rumors blindly- pun not intended -I decided to investigate the issue myself," Thorne replied. Thorne seemed to have noticed that his hand was still resting on Cress's shoulder, he lifted it. The hand hovered awkwardly in the air. Cress willed for him to put it down again. He moved his hand to his side.</p><p>"I'll see you at the ball tomorrow I guess.." he said. She murmured something that bore the resemblance of an affirmative answer. For a split second she thought about telling him that she did not wish to go to the ball with him as friends, just friends. Then she remembered the countless times he had rejected her. He had only rejected her once through speech, but so many more through his actions. Her mind flashed back to the time she had seen him fiercely making out with that one girl under the qudditch bleachers.</p><p>"Cress? You haven't changed your mind right? Is this haircut some kind of rebellion against the patriarchy, have you decided to not follow the norms of society?" Thorne laughed, waving a hand in front of where he probably thought her face was; he was off by approximately one face. Cress tugged at the ends of her hair, which was right to her chin now.</p><p>"No, I'm sorry I just blanked for a second. Uhmm.. Was thinking about our upcoming test," she muttered an excuse.</p><p>"And yes, I'm still going to the ball. I'll see you there," Cress began walking away as they both said bye.</p><p>"How do I look?" Thorne asked Jacin. His arms were stretched out, inviting an answer from his roommate.</p><p>"Don't know, don't care," sounded the response which Jacin delivered. Thorne knew how he looked, well he did not know he looked exactly at that moment, of course. He was blind after all. However he knew approximately how he looked, he had worn the suit that he wore at the current moment before. It was gray, very simple. Not very special. So he could speculate on how his look was. He hoped Cress would like it.</p><p>"Very helpful aren't you bud?" Thorne sighed.</p><p>Jacin did not respond. Thorne knew why he was so moody. Jacin was always moody, but he was more grumpy than usual. One of Cress's hufflepuff roommates, Winter, had quite the history with Jacin. They had been best friends since they were born. Once Jacin was sorted into Slytherin and Winter into Hufflepuff Jacin stopped hanging with her as much. Thorne was not aware of the exact details of course, but from his point of view that was what it seemed like. Now, his roommate did not share much information, but it was quite obvious that Jacin felt some type of way about that Winter. Winter was a very beautiful girl which had led to just about everyone asking her to the ball. Since Winter was quite the polite lass she of course accepted the first offer. After Jacin heard the news he'd been sulking around ever since, making Thorne's life a bit more miserable than necessary. It wasn't like Jacin would actually dare to ask Winter to go to the ball himself, for reasons unknown to Thorne. Which was why Thorne didn't really understand why Jacin was sulking around. Just because he was too afraid of asking a girl to the ball no one else was allowed.</p><p>"Can you at least tell me if there are any hairs out of place or any food in my teeth?" Thorne attempted. His roommate didn't even bother responding. He got up and left the room.</p><p>"Come on mate!" he called after him. Thorne did not quite comprehend why Jacin felt the need to move his sulking to the ball, he knew for a fact that he would stay far away from him.</p><p>If Thorne had had his sight he would have definitely stood outside the kitchen trying to look as inconspicuous as possible to any by-passers or Hufflepuffs emerging. He would have picked up Cress like the gentleman he was, even though they were going to the ball as just friends. Surely a dose of chivalry would have won her over. However, due to his blindness he stood adjacent to a staircase, waiting for her.</p><p>"Who is the handsome fellow that stands before me?" a girl said, not Cress. She trailed her fingers from his arm up to his shoulder. Luisa. Thorne was thankful that he wore a blindfold, if not she would've seen how he rolled his eyes at her presence.</p><p>"I'm waiting for someone. I would appreciate it if you could leave me alone. Let's keep whatever we had in the past," Thorne suggested, locating her shoulder an giving her a friendly pat.</p><p>"Are you seriously going to the Yule ball with that frail hufflepuff mudblod friend of yours?" Luisa snickered.</p><p>"Don't you fucking dare call her a mudblood," he snapped, his hands were balled into fists. The sound of her heels clicking against the stone floor of the castle made his hands unfurl. He never would have actually hit her, but he had not been able to stop his hands from scrunching up into fists at the word mudblood. Thorne could not believe he had ever considered actually taking their relationship from the occasional snogging-session after quidditch practice to dating. Soon after Luisa's steps had faded into the distance a hand landed carefully on his shoulder. Thorne relaxed his shoulders.</p><p>"Hey," said Cress a, timid touch to her voice.</p><p>"Well hello to you too," Thorne said attempting to mask any and all traces of anger that were left in him.</p><p>As Cress and Thorne made their way into the great hall, she tried her best to not think about the way Luisa had talked about her to Thorne. Luisa had done so whilst looking at Cress, establishing eye-contact. Frail mudblood, that was how people thought of her. All she wanted to do was run away. Go to her dormitory and cry. She would not return to her tissue box. Cress wished to break off her strong relations to tissue boxes. Cress blinked rapidly to keep her tears at bay. Thorne told her a joke that she didn't catch, but she laughed anyways, hoping it would distract her. She would not cry, she was not frail.</p><p>"Do you want to dance?" Cress asked Thorne, interrupting him in whatever it was he had been trying to tell her about.</p><p>"Sure, although I must warn you. My dancing skills might be a bit off," Thorne chuckled. Cress dragged Thorne to the dance floor where loud music reverberated on the walls. The music was so loud it pulsed through her body. Cress began to let go of Thorne's hand once they reached the dance floor, but he recaptured the hand. Cress's heart sped up, some of it might just be an affect of the music. Her mind went wild with speculations as to why he had clasped her hand in his again. Thorne leaned in toward her ear.</p><p>"If you really thought I'd jump around to the music blindly you must be the craziest girl I have ever met Cress," he grinned. Her heart wanted to settle down again into a normal rhythm, but struggled due to their interlocked hands. They danced together for quite a few songs without saying much, Cress guessed that Thorne's silence came as a result of the loud music. Thorne danced as if no one was watching, however it was quite the opposite. Next to everyone was watching at some point. Not everyone at once, but very many people stole glances of his weird moves. It was quite similar to how he danced when he could see, the difference was that when he was blind it added a lot of swaying from loosing his balance. Cress couldn't help laughing at his ridiculousness. She leaned in.</p><p>"Maybe you should avoid doing dance moves that include jumping around, you might fall," Cress chuckled as she shouted it out to have her advice heard over the music.</p><p>"What if I want to fall?" Thorne shouted back, it sounded as if he was challenging her.</p><p>"Do you?" she asked.</p><p>"No," Thorne replied, but he added something else silently that Cress did not catch.</p><p>"What?"</p><p>"Nothing important," Thorne told her, she could have sworn he was blushing. It was probably just wishful thinking. What had he said if it had really led to him blushing? If that was the case. The music slowed down, all around them people returned to their tables and seats. A few couples stood on the dance floor. Then there was them, Cress willed Thorne to ask her to dance. He could hear that the songs had switched. He was blind, not deaf. She wanted to stretch out the moment for as long as possible, she did not want to leave the dance floor. Despite how much she wanted to dance with Thorne awkwardness was creeping in as they both just stood there. His hand was hot in hers, she wanted to let go, but at the same time she wanted to hold it. The problem with holding his hand was that to him it meant nothing, it was so mundane. Friends being friends.</p><p>"Do you want to go somewhere else?" Thorne asked. She nodded, before remembering that he could not see. She supplied a yes.</p><p>"Where are we going?" Cress asked as they passed the tables.</p><p>"Up."</p><p>Cress decided it was best if she led the way. Thorne let go of her hand and Cress felt a heavy wave of disappointment washing over her. The disappointment did not last long, Thorne put his hand in between her shoulder blades she became worried that Thorne would feel the hum of her heart. He did not stop there though, he slid his hand downwards. He stopped once he reached the small of her back, his hand rested there, warm against the fabric of the bodice of her dress.</p><p>"Which dress are you wearing?"</p><p>"The blue one," Cress told him.</p><p>"The one from Hogsmeade?" Thorne asked a smile spreading across his face, his eyebrow peeking upward.</p><p>"Yup."</p><p>"Can you describe it for me? It's been a while since I've seen it," Thorne requested. And so Cress fulfilled the request, she described the dress to her best abilities. She told him about the rich blue and the tightness of the bodice and the fluffy and wide skirt.</p><p>"I've noticed," Thorne remarked and moved his hand, fluffing the wide skirt that was squeezed up against his legs.</p><p>The hand found it's place on the small of her back again, she struggled to refrain from smiling.</p><p>"I bet you look stunning. I can picture the dress and I know for a fact that you look amazing in it. But I really struggle with attempting to imagine you with short hair, long hair has always been such a constant thing with you. I can't wait until I get to see that new chop of yours," Thorne sighed. She was selfishly thankful that he was blind, well it was upsetting at the same time. She was thankful that he could not see every time she blushed, but she was upset that he could not see her new haircut and her dress.</p><p>"You don't look too bad yourself," Cress told him. His gray suit clung to his frame perfectly, he was very hot in his suit. She wanted to stop climbing the stairs. She wanted to kiss him right than and there in the staircase. She blushed again. There was not much being said as they neared the top of the staircase.</p><p>"Outside?" Thorne suggested as they reached the top of the stairs.</p><p>"Isn't it a bit cold outside?"</p><p>"Yes, but I'm a bit hot after the dancing," he explained and pointed his thumb toward where he thought outside was. They stepped onto the balcony outside the clock tower. Cress picked up a handful of snow that resided on the balustrade from when it had snowed two days previous. Cress crammed the cold snow into a ball and proceeded to sling her arm around Thorne's shoulders.</p><p>"What are you doi-" he began just as she smashed the snowball onto his head.</p><p>"Still hot?" she giggled. His hand had not moved from the small of her back and she did not remove her arm from his shoulders.</p><p>"How dare you assault a disabled man with snowballs?!" Thorne gasped in a joking manner.</p><p>"Just you wait! Once I get my sight back you will have to pay for this," he threatened as Cress brushed the snow out of his brown curls. They were both smiling</p><p>"Psst," a voice above their heads said. Both of them looked up instinctively. Above their heads hovered Peeves one of the many ghosts on the Hogwarts grounds. The ghosts pointed to what was dangling from his fingers. In his hand Peeves held a mistletoe.</p>
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<a name="section0019"><h2>19. The Mistletoe</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Thorne's hand that rested on the small of her back became a lot heavier as her eyes traveled from the mistletoe suspended in between Peeves's fingers, to Thorne's lips. She began to contemplate if she should go for it or not. If Thorne was unhappy about her kissing him she could always attempt to apologize and blame it on the mistletoe and Peeves. It was the perfect opportunity for kissing Thorne without risking their friendship, and maybe, just maybe he would understand her true feelings and admit his feelings. Well, if he had any feelings for her, which she highly doubted.</p><p>"Psst what?" asked Thorne. "Who are you?" he followed up. Cress tore her gaze away from his lips and directed her eyes towards the mischievous ghost once again. Her heart was hammering in her chest as she opened her mouth to explain the peculiar situation they found themselves in.</p><p>"There's a ghost hovering over us, and he uhm… He is holding a mistletoe above our heads," she couldn't help, but lower her voice as she mentioned the part about the mistletoe. Ghosts at Hogwarts weren't really all that shocking. However, having a ghost with a mistletoe between their fingers hanging above you and your crush, who coincidentally happened to also be your best friend, was not an everyday occurrence.</p><p>...</p><p>A mistletoe. Thorne didn't really think much about it before he let go of his cane, and put his newly freed hand against the side of Cress's face. Cress took a deep breath. Then proceeded to lean down and place his lips against hers. When Cress didn't pull away he deepened the kiss and let his hand slide into her hair. Even though his instinct was to slide the hand that was at the small of her back downwards he moved it up to in between her shoulder blades. He knew Cress well enough to know that she would not appreciate him groping her butt, and he was a gentleman by nature of course. Cress slid her other arm around his neck in response, which automatically pulled them closer to one another. His heart rate sped up, HHHHHHHHHHHe liked her short hair, his hands didn't get tangled in it. Thorne slid the hand that was on her upper back over to her arm and caressed it with his thumb, Cress took a breath that was deeper than normal, Thorne smiled against Cress's lips. Cress smiled back against his lips. Soon enough they were both smiling too much to keep the kiss going. They drew away slowly, Cress rested her forehead against his shoulder, her arms still wrapped around his neck. The scent of her perfume was as sweet as her. Thorne wished he could look down and see her, but he couldn't. Instead he decided to kiss the top of her head. What a horrible timing to be blind. He knew that this was the moment where he should tell her how he felt about her, and how he'd done so for quite some time. But wasn't it already apparent based on what had just happened… They'd kissed.</p><p>"It's cold," murmured Cress against his chest.</p><p>"Do you want to go inside?" He whispered and wrapped both his arms around her. He put his hands on her bare arms and rubbed them up and down her arms, hoping it would keep her warm.</p><p>"Not really," she whispered, Thorne sensed that she moved her head, she was probably looking at him, he hoped she was looking at him.</p><p>"But are you cold?"</p><p>"Yes.."</p><p>"Then we should go inside," Thorne concluded, he followed it up by asking if she wanted to return to the ball.</p><p>"Not really," Cress admitted.</p><p>...</p><p>"I guess that's it for tonight?" Cress stated as they stood outside the entrance to the Hufflepuff common room.</p><p>"I guess..." Thorne shrugged. Cress wanted to invite him inside, but knew it would be impossible to sneak him in and out on the night of the yule ball. She wanted to kiss him again before she went inside, she wanted to make sure he actually liked her and that he didn't kiss her just because of the mistletoe. Sure the mistletoe had been part of it, but if he didn't like her like that he could have kissed her on the cheek instead. Cress knew that kissing people wasn't a big deal for Thorne, and she also knew that the kiss they had shared up on the rooftop probably didn't mean as much to him. But to her kissing people was a big deal, especially taking into consideration that it was her first kiss, and that kiss had meant a lot to her.</p><p>"Sooo…" Cress said.</p><p>"Sooo…" Thorne repeated in response.</p><p>"I'll see you tomorrow then," she said before she turned towards the barrels and began tapping the well known pattern. When the opening appeared Cress turned back to Thorne. She stood up on the tips of her toes and gave Thorne a quick peck on the lips. Her stomach flipped, it was the same sensation as a rollercoaster.</p><p>"Goodnight," she said, as she went into the opening to the common room.</p><p>"Goodnight," Thorne echoed.</p><p>The panel of the barrel slid closed behind her, she rushed towards her dormitory. The moment she had closed the door behind her she flung herself onto the bed and screamed into her pillow. It was as if her heart was being swaddled by a soft blanket.</p><p>"Is everything okay?"</p><p>Cress leaped off her bed.</p><p>"Jesus fucking christ Winter, you scared the ever living fuck out of me!" Cress exclaimed, as she settled down onto her bed in a calm manner. She held her hand to her chest, hoping it would slow down her heart rate. Her heart was beating incredibly fast, not as fast as when Thorne had kissed her and when she had kissed him, but rapid nonetheless.</p><p>"Sorry for scaring you," Winter said, she strode over to Cress's bed and sat down next to her.</p><p>"But really are you alright?" Winter placed a hand on Cress's shoulder. Cress nodded, and a wide grin spread across her face.</p><p>"I'm better than alright," she told her friend.</p><p>Winter gave a slight nod and a soft smile, encouraging Cress to tell the story of what had happened.</p><p>"I kissed Thorne!" Cress bursted out, before rambling on about what had happened, "Well he kissed me- he kissed me first one could say. It actually happened because Peeves held a mistletoe over our heads. And so when I told Thorne about the mistletoe he just leaned in and kissed me!" she stopped to catch her breath.</p><p>"Wow, that really sounds better than alright," sighed Winter.</p><p>"So, as I was saying, we kissed on the rooftop right, and then we went inside because it was cold. And like, uhm… When we were saying goodnight I kissed him! I actually managed to work up the courage! I don't know if he actually likes me likes me, but why would he risk ruining our friendship for just a kiss when he could kiss any other girl at our school. Thorne was the one that went in for the kiss, so he must like me right?"</p><p>"He probably does Cress, I'm so happy for you!" Winter smiled and gave her a tight squeeze.</p><p>"I shouldn't be thinking about the possibility of him not liking me," Cress shook her head as if attempting to shake away the thought. Then Cress remembered that the ball wasn't over yet, she lifted up her pointer finger as if to say, wait a minute.</p><p>"Why are you back so early?" she asked, her brows knitting together.</p><p>"It's nothing, I just couldn't stay any longer," Winter shrugged, she removed her hands from around Cress and let them fall into her lap sloppily.</p><p>"Couldn't?" Cress looked at Winter, and she realized all of a sudden that Winter had been crying. Her stomach scrunched up and she knew it was her turn to put soothing hands on her friend, except it was for someone who needed soothing.</p><p>"What happened Winter? Oh I feel horrendous! I should have asked about your night before jumping into my excited ramblings!"</p><p>Tears streamed down Winter's face.</p><p>"Accio tissues," Cress handed the tissue box over to Winter, she took a tissue and dabbed at the continuous streams.</p><p>"Ze'ev happened," she sighed. Cress's face scrunched up even more, what did Winter mean Ze'ev happened? He might look like the kind of guy that could beat you up, with his huge muscles and his overall size, he had to be at least 1,95 meters. In reality Ze'ev was a huge teddy bear and one of the nicest people Cress knew.</p><p>"I don't understand? Did he hurt you?" Ze'ev hurting anyone seemed so out of character that Cress's brain hurt from trying to figure how that was possible.</p><p>"No."</p><p>"Can't you just tell me what happened?"</p><p>"It's complicated," she sighed.</p><p>"So you know Scarlet in Gryffindor right?" Cress nodded, and afterwards came a long winded explanation.</p><p>"Well, she spent close to all summer at my stepmother's summerestate, and we hung out all summer and became really good friends, well more than friends. She told me the best thing about her summer vacation was me…" she smiled weakly as her voice trailed of towards the end.</p><p>"I knew she liked Ze'ev a lot, of course I did, but I didn't think she liked him that much. I thought he was just a fling, but I think it was me. I was just a fling," tears spilled out of Winter's eyes once again, Cress handed her another tissue.</p><p>"Seeing them together on the dancefloor- I just couldn't," Winter whispered.</p><p>"My date must be so disappointed I just left without saying anything, I am an awful person."</p><p>"No, you're not, Winter you are such a wonderful girl. You should talk to Scarlet and tell her how you feel, everything will work out in the end," Cress assured her friend, she wrapped both her arms around Winter and squeezed her tight.</p>
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<a name="section0020"><h2>20. The Snowball Fight</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Funfact, this chapter is what spawned the idea of this fic. I thought this fic would be max 10k words when I started writing it lmao.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was "tomorrow" and Cress still hadn't seen Thorne. It was only noon, but they always met up in the library after lunch on the weekends. Today however, Cress couldn't see Thorne in their usual spot. He probably regretted the kiss, she didn't, but at the lack of Thorne in their usual spot she was starting to. She took a seat and proceeded to pull out various books from her backpack, which was poised against the legs of her chair. As she looked up she looked straight into the eyes of Thorne, blue as the sky.</p><p>"Hey," she said shyly, her hand found a small section of hair which she began to toy with.</p><p>"The short hair really works," Thorne responded simply.</p><p>"Thank you," she said, her cheeks warmed up, then all of a sudden she realized what he had said.</p><p>"You can see again?" she asked surprised, her eyes fleeting upwards, connecting with Thorne's.</p><p>"Yes." he smiled. Thorne turned towards the window, Cress followed his gaze. Heavy flakes of snow were drifting down slowly outside, plenty of them clinging to the window panes. Thorne exhaled sharply, in a sort laugh.</p><p>"What?" Cress asked, lifting a brow and shaking her head weakly. Thorne stepped closer to the window, and to her.</p><p>"I just came to think of when we were younger and used to play in the snow," he told her. Cress giggled as the memories came to her.</p><p>"Well... Our snowball fights were always all fun and games until you decided you were getting bored and threw snow down the back of my neck!" Cress scoffed and pushed Thorne's side playfully.</p><p>"Come on! You thought it was fun too!"</p><p>"Hilarious," Cress answered deadpan. "We both know it's because you couldn't stand the idea of losing, so you found a great way to interrupt the game before either one of us could win," Cress concluded. Thorne put a hand down on the back of Cress's chair, his other hand he held out towards her.</p><p>"What do you say we settle this once and for all. A snowball fight with no snow down the neck allowed. A fair and square game," Thorne smirked.</p><p>"Alright, let's do this!" she shook his hand and used it to drag herself up from the chair. Then she used the joking mood between the two of them to her advantage. She gathered up the courage to lean close, so close that her face was only a couple centimeters away from Thorne's.</p><p>"I have to remind you that my legal guardian is a lawyer, so if you do in fact smear snow down my back I will sue you," Cress threatened in a serious tone, but they both knew she was joking, there was no way she would interact with Sybil unless she absolutely had to.</p><p>…</p><p>As they were making their way towards the greenhouses the sun peeked out from between the clouds. The snow around them came down slower and slower. By the time they had reached the greenhouses it had stopped snowing completely, nonetheless the ground was covered with an impressive amount of snow. The snow glittered like diamonds when the sun hit it. The weight of their feet against the snow made a satisfying crunching sound. Thorne bent down into a squatting position, he tipped forward and stretched out his arms to keep his balance, then he dipped his left hand down in the sparkling snow to steady himself further. He then threw a glance at Cress who was still walking, he proceeded to wrap his hand around the cold and wet snow, with the help of his right hand he formed a ball.</p><p>"Are you coming?" Cress turned around, her hands hovered in the air as a display of her confusion at his lack of movement. Her eyes travelled to the ball of snow that he held between his hands.</p><p>"That is cheating!" she screamed as he lanced the ball towards her. Cress ducked down just in time and began cramming together a ball between the palms of her hands. Soon enough snowballs were flying back and forth in a frenzy, both of them using the corners of the greenhouses to shield themselves. Thorne pressed a ball together in between his palms, which he then rolled in the snow around him until it was the size of his head. Just as Thorne was finishing up his oversized snowball Cress came around the corner with several small snowballs gathered in her arms. She rapidly fired them at Thorne and ran in the direction she had come from. Screams followed her as her eyes had indeed caught sight of Thorne's bigger than average snowball. Although the weight of the snowball slowed him down, Thorne managed to catch up to her. It was no secret that he had always been a more swift runner than Cress. He preceded to throw the snowball towards Cress's frame, aiming for her back. Score! The ball hit her, the weight of it putting of her balance and pushing her down on the ground. Cress's fall forward was cushioned by the soft snow. Cress rolled around onto her back. She smiled as she looked at him. He smiled back, how could he not?</p><p>"Can you at least help me up?"</p><p>In response Thorne offered Cress his hand, which Cress accepted. Thorne pulled Cress towards himself, but as he pulled his feet began to lose their footing. He attempt to drag Cress up on her feet in a brash movement in a meek attempt to not fall. It did not work. He lost his footing and his body came full force down on Cress's body, luckily he managed to dampen the blow somewhat by placing his forearms down on the ground first, as the rest of his weight followed he apologized. Giggling bubbled out of Cress's mouth.</p><p>"Don't worry about it, it wasn't actually your fault."</p><p>Thorne could've sworn she was blushing, but then again it was cold outside, which could also be a factor as to why her face had turned red.</p><p>"Are you cold?" He decided to ask her, she answered by shaking her head. They were so close he could feel their warm breaths mingling with one another. Their eyes met and his eyes wandered down to her lips before he could stop them, butterflies began aggressively batting their wings in his stomach. He tore his eyes away from her lips and met her eyes once again. Can I kiss you is what he wanted to ask, but all he managed to get out what an excuse of a whisper resembling "can".</p><p>…</p><p>Thorne's eyes were peering deeply into hers, he kept throwing glances at her lips and she could have sworn he had whispered "can", could he what? Could they go inside? Could they get up on their feet again? Could he kiss her? It couldn't be the last one, or maybe it could? That kiss on the rooftop had to have meant something to him too.</p><p>"I still like you," Cress murmured, regret washing over her like a wave the moment the words left her mouth. There really was no going back now, after the little peck the night before he would know she was lying if she went back on her words.</p><p>"Can I kiss you?" Thorne whispered. Cress's heart sped up, it was almost beating faster than it was when she had to leave Hogwarts for the summer, to stay with Sybil. All Cress managed to do in response to Thorne's question was nodding. Yes, he was very much allowed to kiss her. All of a sudden their lips were crashing together, the wonderful warmth of his lips against hers reminded of her of how cold it was outside. Even though the new addition of warmth applied to her body made her aware of the cold snow beneath her she did not want to leave, she wanted to stay there for a while. Thorne rolled over on his side and Cress followed, their lips still connected, his arm cushioning her head. Their legs were intertwined, their lips were moving together in brash movements of desperation and desire. Years of wanting building up to this confirmation of mutual feelings. Their lips separated as they both took deep breaths of air.</p><p>"Better than last time," Thorne breathed.</p><p>"Oh," Cress's heart sank, hadn't he enjoyed their last kiss, why had he smiled if he didn't like it.</p><p>"It was good last time too, this was just... woah," he answered hastily in order to reassure her. His fingers were buried in her hair, toying with it.</p><p>"I'm starting to think you didn't want to go to the ball as just friends," Cress murmured.</p><p>"I'm starting to think you didn't either," Thorne shot back.</p><p>"You might be correct in that assumption," she giggled.</p>
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<a name="section0021"><h2>21. We like like each other</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Cress was soaking wet from the snow and skipped, almost danced, her way through the kitchen and toward the Hufflepuff entrance. She had split ways with Thorne in the entrance hall from the castle grounds, on her way through the corridors she had almost been floating. Her heart was soaring, and so was she. Her hand tapped the barrels absentmindedly, as her thoughts brought her back to the warm embrace of Thorne in the dazzling snow. As Cress finished the pattern on the barrels, the entrance to the Hufflepuff common room appeared in accordance. She swiveled in through the tunnels and made her way towards her dormitory, when a brash voice interrupted her daze.</p><p>"Well at least someone's having a good day."</p><p>Cress spun around to see Ze'ev who was rushing toward his dormitory.</p><p>"Are you alright?" she asked, concern painting her voice.</p><p>"Splendid," he huffed, as he slammed open the door to his dormitory, which made Cress jump.</p><p>She scanned the common room for any familiar faces to ask about the situation, there were only lowerclassmen present who were just as confused as her.</p><p>…</p><p>As Cress pushed the door to her dormitory closed behind her, Snowball came to greet her. She knelt down to pet him, and gave him a kiss on his head.</p><p>"Hello, my lovely," Cress whispered to the cat, in response he purred.</p><p>Cress strode towards her dresser to find a set of dry clothes. Snowball decided to search for cuddles elsewhere and jumped up on the bed and wedged himself in between Iko and Winter.</p><p>"Why are your clothes soaked?" Winter quizzed in a chipper tone as she scratched Snowball behind his ears. A giggle slipped out of Cress as the memories of her and Thorne in the snow came back, and the concern of the unusually grumpy Ze'ev washed away.</p><p>"Long story short," she paused to wring off her wet clothes. "Thorne never wanted to go to the ball as just friends and we like like each other," she squealed. Winter and Iko snickered.</p><p>"What?" Cress asked, she turned around to look at them. Her head was poking out of her dry jumper, her hair a mess, which made her appear a lot more bewildered than she actually was.</p><p>"You two had a snogging session at the ball and you still needed verbal confirmation to be sure that he like-"</p><p>"But Peeves," Cress interrupted.</p><p>"If he didn't like you he would probably would've kissed your cheek and left it at that, or maybe given you a little peck. He wouldn't have bothered snogging your face off dear," Iko explained.</p><p>"You're being a bit dramatic, but I guess you're right," Cress blushed, her fingers brushing her lips gingerly as she thought about the weight of what Iko had said.</p><p>"So are you two finally a couple now?" Winter asked. Cress had just finished pulling on a pair of pajama bottoms, she paused to think. She realized that her and Thorne had in fact not clarified the status of their current relationship.</p><p>"Based on your pensive expression I'm guessing the answer is no," Iko concluded.</p><p>"I guess we were a bit too distracted with other things to clarify that," she murmured.</p><p>"What other things?" Winter asked absentmindedly. Cress blushed profusely and Iko sighed.</p><p>"Kissing obviously."</p><p>"Oh," Winter grinned at her friend's explanation.</p><p>"Well… I don't want to be a buzzkill Cress, but considering his track record and the fact that he is a Slythe-"</p><p>"Come on Iko, give her a break with the Slytherin prejudice."</p><p>Cress knew Iko had had bad experiences with Slytherin guys, but it still shocked her how Iko pushed the same judgement on Thorne who had been nothing but nice to Cress.</p><p>"You know how he is Iko," Cress said, to which Iko rolled her eyes. Her thoughts probably wandered off to Thorne's other romantic endeavours which he had gained quite the reputation for. Iko wasn't unfamiliar with the unintentional negative effects those endeavours had had on Cress.</p><p>"You know what I meant Iko, how he is with me, how he's always been with me," she thought back to the first time she met Thorne, long ago on that first train ride. A smile spread across her face.</p><p>"I know that Cress, but I've seen how much he's capable of hurting you. And don't even get me started on his family. Do you really think his pureblood family would accept you as Thorne's girlfriend, I mean if he dared tell them that you were dating," Iko stated.</p><p>"Iko stop, you're just being mean, let her live in the happy moment for a bit," Winter scolded.</p><p>"Fine," Iko sighed. Cress knew Iko had her best interest at heart, she was not saying it to be mean, nonetheless she appreciated Winter's interception. Still, she knew for a fact that there was a whole lot more truth to what Iko had said about Thorne's family than she wanted to admit to her friends, but also to herself.</p><p>"I don't want you to get hurt Cress, that's all." Iko finished.</p><p>"I know," Cress smiled.</p><p>"Speaking of people getting hurt, I should probably check up on Ze'ev," Iko said, pushing herself up from the bed and towards the door out to the common room.</p><p>"Yeah what's up with him? He was super harsh when I ran into him in the common room, not like himself at all," Cress remembered all of a sudden as Iko brought the topic up.</p><p>"I'll let the two of you gush about your crushes in peace," Iko snickered as she left the room.</p><p>...</p><p>"So… I talked to Scarlet," Winter said as the door shut behind Iko.</p><p>"How did it go?" Cress squealed, she plopped down on the bed next to Winter where Iko had been sitting a few moments ago.</p><p>"It went great," she grinned, her grin waned as she continued. "For me and Scarlet that is. Ze'ev, not so much."</p><p>"Well what happened?" Cress pressed, impatient to know why Ze'ev was so angered.</p><p>"This morning I ran into Scarlet, and she told me all about the ball. Apparently she wanted to ask me to be her date for the ball, but she heard I already had a date so when Ze'ev asked her she said yes."</p><p>Snowball moved over to Cress's lap as Winter got too distracted with her story to give him any cuddles.</p><p>"So she really likes you! You weren't 'just' a fling," Cress gave Winter a smile.</p><p>"Yeah, but once she realized I'd left the ball she left too, which obviously hurt Ze'ev. And now he's really upset, especially after Scarlet told him how she feels about me."</p><p>"Oh Cress, I am so happy," Winter threw herself back on the bed, looking up at the ceiling. "But I feel so bad for Ze'ev. I feel like it's my fault," Winter sighed. Cress looked down on Winter whose hair surrounded her head like a halo, her hair symbolising her innocence in the same way as Cress's words: "It's not your fault Scarlet isn't in love with Ze'ev, you're friends, if he's a true friend he'll be happy for you even though it might be hard for him."</p><p>"I hope so," Winter mused.</p><p>…</p><p>"What's up with you?" Jacin asked as Thorne entered their dormitory, face plastered with a huge grin. He felt as if he was on a rollercoaster, his belly filled with butterflies that were doing endless summersaults. Thorne ignored Jacin knowing it would only cause him trouble if Jacin found out about him and Cress. Whatever it was he and Cress were. Although Jacin's family was not as bad as Thorne's when it came to the whole issue of muggleborns, Thorne knew that word would travel fast if it got out he was with a hufflepuff muggleborn. His parents already despised the fact that he was friends with Cress.</p><p>"Can you at least try to not make our entire dormitory wet?" Jacin scowled at Thorne's snow covered boots. Thorne nodded meekly, now completely occupied with the logistics of his relationship with Cress.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Reviews and constructive criticism is always appreciated. And I'll try to update asap!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0022"><h2>22. Maybe We're Both Cowards</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I didn't bother proofreading this because I'm a lazy piece of shit, but hey this is probably the fastest I've ever updated. Reviews and constructive criticism and are always appreciated!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Are you sure we won’t get caught,” Cress murmured. The idea of getting caught in Slytherin common room, let alone his room was mortifying, but it wasn’t the only thing making her heart beat. Her hand was clasped tight with his. </p><p>“Yeah, I’m sure,” Thorne smiled. </p><p>“Now close your eyes, and put your hands over your ears,” he instructed. Cress closed her eyes and pressed her hands over ears as hard as she could so she would not hear the password. Thorne had insisted it was not a big deal and that he didn’t care if she knew how to get in on her own, but she had explained that she would feel uncomfortable if she knew so he had respected her wishes. All of a sudden she felt his warm lips against her lips, her hands fell from her ears and landed in the nape of his neck. He wrapped his arms around her and leaned her against the stonewall. Even though they had kissed several times since the yule ball and their snowball fight her heart couldn’t help but hammer at her chest and nothing could be done to stop her belly from floating. The kiss deepened, and she remembered where they were and pulled away reluctantly. She didn’t want anyone to see them outside the Slytherin dungeon, not because she didn’t want people to know about them, but because she didn’t want people to know why they were outside the Slytherin dungeon. In addition, she was not a huge fan of pda.</p><p>“I didn’t know kissing was a part of getting in,” she whispered, Thorne leaned his forehead against hers.</p><p>“I just couldn’t help myself,” he chuckled, before leaning in for a quick peck. He then turned around and Cress returned her hands to their previous position over her ears. He took her left hand in his a few seconds later, and led her into the common room, which was luckily still empty. Thorne dragged her along toward what she assumed was the boys dormitories in a haste. She barely got a glimpse of the common room which bore a stark contrast to that of Hufflepuff. She remembered Thorne remarking that Hufflepuff’s common room was so bright, now she understood what he had meant as her eyes flashed across the dark interior that was bathed in a green tinted light.</p><p>“Come on, in here,” Thorne said in a hushed tone as he opened a door and pushed Cress inside, before swinging the door shut behind them. </p><p> </p><p>						…</p><p> </p><p>Thorne hoped Jacin would stay in the library until dinner, that’s what he’d said before leaving at least. Usually they would hang out in Cress’s dormitory during the winter holidays, since both of Cress’s roommates usually went away, but this year Winter had decided to stay. Apparently much to Ze’ev’s dismay according to Cress, because the reason that Winter was staying behind was her new girlfriend, Scarlet. He himself had been a bit shocked to find out that Scarlet was not head over heels for Ze’ev, because he had been sure they were a steady couple, but apparently it had been a bit of a fling. Winter staying at Hogwarts for the holidays was a problem to him and Cress too of course, but since Jacin usually spent most of his holiday in the library or anywhere else that was not the dormitory, Thorne had figured it would be safe. Cress stood in the middle of the room, studying it. Thorne sat down on his bed, watching her face light up as she saw a photo of her and him that she had gifted him on their first christmas celebration together. The photo had a handmade frame with the Hufflepuff and Slytherin colors, it stood atop his dresser next to a photo of him and his parents. </p><p>“They look nice,” she commented as her gaze traveled to the photo with his parents. </p><p>“Yeah, they’d probably bother celebrating christmas with their only child if they were, they’re so occupied with status and I don’t exactly fit into their picture perfect family,” he responded. Cress frowned at his words.</p><p>“I’m sorry,” she sat down next to him on the bed, her eyes met his.</p><p>“It’s fine, you have it worse,” he smiled at her sheepishly and looked away, in an attempt to move away from the topic. </p><p>“Don’t say that, just because someone else has it worse doesn’t mean your feelings aren’t valid,” Cress responded, she squeezed his hand. Thorne was about to hug her when he heard footsteps approaching.</p><p>“Hide!” he hissed. Cress swiftly pulled her hand away and slid under his bed. Thorne sat frozen on his bed, as if that would prevent anyone from coming in. It was the same logic as monsters under your bed not being able to take you if you were completely under your duvet as a child. He could hear the steps moving away from where he sat frozen on his bed. </p><p>“The coast is clear,” he told Cress, who proceeded to push herself out from underneath the bed. She pushed herself up into a sitting position and leaned her back against the bed.</p><p>“When was the last time you cleaned under your bed?” she asked as she brushed big chunks of dust off her clothes. </p><p>“Sorry,” he answered and gave her a sheepish shrug. She turned to look at him from where she sat on the floor, “wow” she mouthed, her lips spreading into a grin. He chuckled and picked a bigger piece of dust out from her blunt bob. </p><p>“You are disgusting,” she proclaimed and shoved him playfully in the knee. </p><p>“Do you want to sit next to me again, or are you too disgusted?” He gave her his best puppy eyes. Cress put a hand up to her chin.</p><p>“Hmm.. I’ll have to think about it,” she answered. They sat in silence as Cress pretended to be in deep thought.</p><p>“Well?”</p><p>“Alright,” she finally said, she put her palms on the bed behind her and pushed herself up from the floor and sat down in the bed next to Thorne. He studied her face, she was so beautiful. Her eyes met his which made her blush, which made her look even more adorable, she lowered her gaze to her lap. Thorne smiled, he felt his own cheeks heat up a bit because of the fact that he was the reason she was blushing. </p><p>“You’re so beautiful,” he said, saying it out loud made his heart speed up. Why was it so hard for him to keep up his composure around her, he was no suave ladies’ man around Cress and that was for sure. </p><p>“You too,” Cress murmured. </p><p>“Thank you,” he said a bit shocked, he had never been called beautiful before. </p><p> </p><p>						…</p><p> </p><p>Cress sat next to Thorne, aching to touch him, to kiss him, but her nerves got the best of her so she sat there straight as a stick.</p><p>“Are you alright?” Thorne asked her, he placed a hand on her shoulder, his brows knitting together as he searched her eyes for the answer.</p><p>“Yeah, I’m fine. You’re just a lot better than me when it comes to stuff like this,” she mumbled, turning her face away before it got too noticeably red.</p><p>“Stuff like this?” he responded. </p><p>“You know what I mean,” she mumbled, her face heating up even more. How was it so hard for her to kiss him or touch him when it was exactly what she wanted, how come only he was able to initiate it. She was a wimp. </p><p>“You’re always so bold and suave,” she said, hoping it would explain her previous statement further. She pushed herself to look at him. Thorne looked at her in disbelief, before he began laughing. He leaned backward on his hands which were splayed out on the bed behind him.</p><p>“What?” she asked, pushing him playfully.</p><p>“I’m such a mess around you Cress,” he said, leaning forward again he looked at her.</p><p>“Really?”</p><p>“I mean you’re the one who told me about your feelings, and then I rejected you because I was scared of hurting you. I don’t think that’s very suave or bold,” he huffed. She was a bit shocked to hear he had really liked her for that long, she had really believed he had just wanted to be friends at that time, but considering he had brought her to a tea place for couples it wasn’t really that shocking. </p><p>“If I weren’t such a coward I could have avoided hurting you,” he took one of her hands in his.</p><p>“Don’t beat yourself up about that, it was such a long time ago,” she placed the hand that was not being held by Thorne on his shoulder to comfort him. </p><p>“You know I sent you a letter during the summer holiday about my feelings for you,” he chuckled.</p><p>“You did? I never got it..” she stated a bit disappointed. </p><p>“Well.. I sent it and then I stupefied the owl, because I was scared you would hate me,” he admitted with a meek laugh. </p><p>“No way! You could have gotten expelled!” she exclaimed.</p><p>“Wasn’t really thinking about that in the moment,” he rubbed the back of his neck. </p><p>“Maybe we’re both cowards,” Cress proposed.</p><p>“Maybe, but I think you’re less of a coward than I am,” he shrugged.</p><p>She turned to face Thorne, knowing that he found her braver than she actually was, gave her courage enough to lean in and kiss him for once. She placed a firm kiss on his lips, which softened once their lips met. As opposed to their previous kisses, this kiss did not have the same urgency. It was like a warm blanket, it was soft and comfortable, it had no element of hurriedness to it either. It was just the two of them alone, taking their time, lips moving fluidly together, silky tongues moving together. Although it was her who had initiated this kiss her heart rate was steady even though it was rapid, there was something about the privacy and intimacy of this kiss that helped calm her nerves. Thorne pulled her down onto the bed so they were laying on their sides. Their arms were wrapped around one another, and their legs entangled.</p><p>“You are amazing,” he whispered against her lips, she smiled and kissed her way to his cheek, before planting a dozen kisses on his cheekbone. </p><p>“You’re not so bad for a Slytherin,” she whispered in his ear.</p><p>“You’re not so bad for a Hufflepuff,” he retorted.</p>
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